


Do Mutants Dream of Telepathic Sheep?

by Sandmans_Raven



Series: X-Men '97 [1]
Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cyberpunk, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 07:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 46,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23347489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandmans_Raven/pseuds/Sandmans_Raven
Summary: It is on the eve of a new millennium. Technology is at an all-time high while the quality of life gets lower and lower. Mutants have been popping up more and more, which is creating fear in a world that is already scared.On this night, one mutant enters the Xavier Mansion as a guest while the other enters as a thief.
Relationships: Callisto/Ororo Munroe, Jean Grey/Scott Summers, Remy LeBeau/Rogue
Series: X-Men '97 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679242
Comments: 12
Kudos: 16





	1. Entrance Exam

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Cyberpunk X-Men story I've had on my mind for a while. It began with me thinking of how Rogue and Gambit would interact in this world but as I started down this rabbit hole, I realized it would be fun to write the whole team. I've written the entire first arc and will be starting the second arc soon, but figured I would go ahead and start posting this first one, chapter-by-chapter.
> 
> This has mostly been a fun distraction from my other stuff, so it's a little rough, but I'm pretty happy with it. Enjoy!

Salem Center wasn’t always a part of New York City--a lot of places weren’t. Once the Shi’ar established contact with some of Earth’s brightest minds, including Howard Stark and Reed Richards, there was a technological boom. Almost overnight, many of the world’s problems were eradicated. Limitations of the old world, both technologically and biologically, were overcome and for a while, at least, it seemed like Stark, Richards, and the rest of their circle of scientists, had created a utopia.

But, like with any new invention, there were unforeseen side-effects and new problems that replaced the old. Pollution and overpopulation rose at an exponential rate and not even the Avengers could defeat that villain. This overpopulation forced all cities to quickly expand and absorb whatever space they could. Skyscrapers, 30-40-stories tall went up one day and were at capacity the next. And with that, Salem Center, once a quaint, rural part of New York became another annex of New York City.

Because of this, Remy LeBeau was surprised when he saw this old mansion at 1407 Graymalkin Lane sandwiched between two glass and metal complexes that were filled to the brim with people. It was uncommon to see a stone structure such as this still standing in a city of metal and neon. Surely, whoever owned it must have had a lot of pull to be able to avoid eminent domain. Or money.

A warm rain tapped at the hood pulled up over the man’s head as he took a long drag from his cigarette. He peered down at the mansion from the roof of a building across the street with a sign that read, ‘Alchemax Logistics’ in brilliant yellow. There were no lights on at the mansion that he could see, however, which further concealed it among the glow of that emanated from every other building around it.

Not one of the endless stream of pedestrians who passed by paid any mind to the building and no cars stopped at its front door. In fact, no one seemed to pay any sort of attention to this relic for the two hours he had been watching until a hooded figure broke from the crowd, jogging up the steps out of the rain and ringing the doorbell.

Remy took one last drag from his smoke and flicked it to the side as the door opened and the hooded figure went in. 

So, there was someone home, he thought and grinned. He was always ready for a challenge.

#

Jean looked with a pained expression as Scott used a butter knife to scrape at the dried cheese on a pan. “You’re just going to damage the surface. Then it’s going to get rusty.”

“Hey, I’m the dishwasher tonight,” Scott said with a small smile. “You’re drying.”

“Be that as it may,” Jean said, “It’s much more efficient to just let the pan soak overnight.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want our new guest to think we’re all slobs,” Scott said.

“No, not all of us,” Jean said and leaned in to peck him on the cheek. “Just you.”

“Says the woman who --”

Bing-Bong.

“Hold that thought, Summers.” She poked him playfully in the chest. “Better yet, forget it before it gets you in trouble. I’ll go let her in.”

“Jubilee, that means you’re tapping in,” Scott said. “Jubilee?”

He said this to the girl sitting in the back of the kitchen on one of the counters, listening through a pair of bulky headphones while she toyed around on a holopad.

Jubilee, Jean said to her telepathically. I know you can hear me, at least.

“Oh come on,” the girl said. “Can’t a girl have some peace? Why can’t we just use the dishwasher?”

“Well, someone forgot to run it this morning after breakfast,” Scott said.

“Even through your glasses, I know you’re giving me the stink-eye,” Jubilee groaned as she slid off the counter. “And I don’t like it.”

Jean offered the towel to the girl with a wink, who took it and held it like it was a dead animal rather than a damp towel. Jean made her way from the kitchen into the dining room, and finally to the entryway where she could see the silhouette of someone through the frosted glass of the double-doors.

Taking one more moment to rehearse her introductions, Jean inhaled and pulled the metal handle of the door, revealing their guest.

“Hi,” Jean said with a smile. “You must be Anna.”

“Hi,” the young woman before her said. Behind her, the constant flow of pedestrians continued, not one paying any mind to them. “And yes.”

Jean stepped to the side and pulled the door open. “Come on in. It’s really pouring out there.”

Anna walked through, bringing in with her the smell of rain and car exhaust. She pulled back the hood to her rain slicker, revealing her short hair pulled back into a ponytail. For the most part, her hair was brown, but her bangs were snow white. She dropped her backpack on the floor and pulled off her jacket as she looked around wide-eyed at everything from the ornate wood walls to the chandelier hanging in the anteroom before them and the various portraits of stuffy-looking men and women from yesteryear. It would have been beautiful if not for the layer of dust and decay it seemed to take on throughout the years. Even the air had a stagnant smell to it like she had just walked into an old library rather than a mansion.

Jean, meanwhile, couldn’t help but stare at their new guest’s clothing: an oversized sweater that had been cut into a crop-top and worn over a black dress that went down to her knees, which met with a pair of long combat boots worn over black tights. Somehow, she felt out of place in her khakis and cardigan.

“Ah didn’t catch your name,” Anna said, noticing the stare.

“Oh right. Jean Grey.” She held her hand out for a shake, but the woman just stared at it.

“Sorry, Ah don’t really...do physical contact,” Anna said.

“Right,” Jean said and shook her head. “Sorry, the professor filled me in on your mutation.”

“S’alright,” she said.

“Did you find the place okay?” Jean asked.

“Sure,” Anna said.

There was a moment of nothing but muffled chatter from the kitchen as Jean tried to think of something else to add. But she couldn't and the silence only seemed to stifle her attempts further.

“Well, let me show you your room.”

Before she could grab it herself, Jean picked up Anna’s bag and stepped out of the entryway to a foyer that led to a grand staircase immediately ahead of them and two corridors to the left and right. Anna looked up at the chandelier that was directly above them, and continued to gawk at the furniture and antiquities that looked like they would crumble if she were to even touch them. Jean started up the stairs, creaking with each step.

“To the right is the living room/sitting room area and to the left is the dining room, which leads to the kitchen.” She stopped halfway up the stairs and turned back to Anna. “Have you eaten anything? We were just cleaning up dinner, but there are leftovers in the fridge we can heat up for you if you’re hungry.”

“Yeah,” Anna said, still taking everything in. “Maybe later, sugah.”

They made their way up the stairs, where it split off to the left and right again. Jean led Anna to the left. Down the hall, there were ten identical doors, each twenty feet from the other.

“This is my room,” Jean said, pointing a thumb at the first room. At the second, she said, “This is Jubilee’s -- you’ll meet her later. The next is Kitty’s and after that Illyana’s and finally Betsy’s and then Xian’s. The attic is Cal’syee’s and the boys have the hallway on the other side of bathrooms.”

Jean stopped at the seventh door down.

“This is your room,” she said and held out a closed fist. Anna reached forward and Jean dropped a metal key into her gloved hand. “And this is your key.”

For a moment, Anna was unsure what to do. She hadn’t been here more than ten minutes and already she was being given a key to a room that, even from the outside, looked larger than anywhere she had ever lived before. With Jean watching her, Anna put the key into the lock and turned, opening the door into a room furnished with a bed, a dresser, and a desk. Anna stepped inside and went to the window that hung over the desk and peered out.

The view was anything but grand--it merely looked out into a narrow alleyway where she saw people in wet and stained clothes underneath whatever coverage they could find. A few had even made fires in trash cans and other debris to keep warm.

“It’s not much, but it’s yours.” Jean waited for a response and then said, “What do you think?”

“It’s...nice. Thank you,” Anna said. Jean looked a little deflated at her reaction. “But how in the world is a place like this even here? This is a mansion that should be on one of those private islands in the Pacific, not in New York. Y’all even have extra rooms and you’re givin’ one of them to me. For free.”

“Well…” Jean began. “Because of the professor’s telepathic abilities, and we are able to create a psychic shield, augmented by Shi’ar tech, making it so no one knows this place even exists if we don't want them to.”

“What do people see instead?”

Jean smiled. “Just another building. One that no one would be interested in.”

Anna thought about this, feeling a mixture of gratitude and, strangely, guilt. Before this, Anna was another girl living wherever she could find that wasn't in the rain, in an alleyway, or in the sewers with the fabled Morlocks. Now she was an adult, just like Jean, and could fend for herself. Why had she been asked to be here?

“There are surely people that deserve this more than me, though…”

“Maybe,” Jean said bluntly. “I’m sure there are plenty that deserve my room more than me, but the Professor sees in us something that can be honed and crafted to help the ones who do need it. To train us to solve the problems we don't know we will have yet. Otherwise, we are always going to be playing catch-up with our current problems. The Professor will give you the Big Speech we all got when the two of you meet, but that’s why you’re here.”

Anna considered Jean’s words and although she followed her logic, there was still something about all of her situation that just didn’t sit right. How exactly could her own powers be “honed” to solve any problems?

“Well, I’ll let you get settled,” Jean finally said. “But if you’re up for it, feel free to come down to the living room. Most of us will be down there watching TV and I know everyone will want to meet you. Or grab a bite first.”

“Okay. That sounds good,” Anna said, although she immediately regretted it and wished for nothing more than to be left alone in her room to read her book, sleep, or one and then the other. 

But this was a new chapter in Anna’s life, one that she couldn’t let be written for her like it had for so long in her previous stories.

“Hey, Jean,” Anna said before she could leave. “Thank you.”

The woman’s smile radiated from her almost as warm as her red hair.

As soon as she heard the door latch click, Anna fell back into her bed and soaked into it. She always made it a point to not become too comfortable with anywhere she would call “home”, but dammit, if these people weren’t making it pretty hard to stick by that rule.

#

Less than an hour after he watched the figure go into the mansion, Remy found his way across the street and in the alleyway between it and one of the skyscrapers. There were a few people huddled underneath a make-shift awning around burning trash cans, but it was still empty compared to a lot of alleyways he found himself in. None of the people seemed to pay any attention to the man aside from a sideways glance here or there.

He found one of these burning trash cans that had only two people standing near it and joined them. Pulling his hands out of his pockets, he held them over the fire, feeling the heat dry out his gloves and creep up his forearms.

One of the people, a man wearing an old Yankees beanie, said, “Got a smoke?”

“Oui,” Remy replied and pulled out a pack. He offered one to him, who gratefully took it with a nod, and lit it with his Zippo. He then offered a smoke to the other person, but she just shook her head, so he took it for himself. “So, what do you know about dis building here? Who owns it?”

The Yankees man turned and looked at the mansion and then turned back to the fire. “Dunno. Stark, maybe? Or Osborne? They seem to own every other building.”

“Ever see anyone go in or out?”

The man shrugged. “Maybe. Not sure.”

Remy bit his lip, feeling the slight pang of frustration.

“How ‘bout you?” he asked the woman. “Know anything about this building?”

“The hell do I look like?” the woman said. “It’s a building. There are lots of ‘em in the city. Some people live in ‘em and some aren’t that lucky.”

“Right,” he said with an inaudible sigh. He looked around it but saw no great point of entry. There were windows all around the mansion, but all of them were closed and he didn’t believe anyone in this city was dumb enough to close a window without locking it. 

There was, however, a balcony on the third floor that seemed to call out to him. It was small, but ornate, with a concrete railing that looked almost Grecian and a few potted plants (surely they couldn’t be real) lining it. What attracted the man to this spot, however, was the open balcony door that swayed gently in the wind. The only problem was the height.

Then he looked behind him. Up the side of the skyscraper ran a fire escape in a zig-zag pattern. There was a good fifteen feet between the buildings, but he had gotten over worse jumps.

“Well, mes amis,” Remy said, “I would love to stay and enjoy your company, but I’m afraid it’s time for me to bid you adieu.”

The Yankee man waved with the cigarette pinched between his fingers but the woman said nothing.

Remy wasn’t paying attention to either person, though, as he got to the base of the fire escape and pulled himself up the cold and wet rungs. The escape was slippery, of course, but the man’s boots still did their part in giving him enough traction as he carefully made his way down the walkway and to the next set of stairs. If the rain did let up, even just a little bit, this jump would be no problem at all.

And then something stopped the man at the steps. He just happened to look across to the mansion and saw that one of the rooms was lit. Normally this caused him to do nothing more than a cautionary check of the room, but when he did so, he saw a woman like none that he had ever seen.

This woman lied in a plain looking bed in the room, her eyes closed but not sleeping. She had white bangs and brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and she was beautiful.

“Hmm.” The man watched her for a moment longer and then continued up the steps. “I’ll see you later, chere.”

#

There was a silence in this room the likes of which Anna had never really experienced before. Other than the rain tapping outside of the window, she heard muffled laughter in the lower level, but it was still a rare thing to be away from the constant hum and clatter of the city while still being in the heart of it. If she wasn’t careful, she would drift asleep.

Rubbing her eyes, Anna sat up and was about to undress when she realized the blinds to her window were up. In fact, there were no blinds at all. She studied the window frame until she found a black strip of glass at the base. Anna touched it gently and suddenly the hue of the window went darker by a shade. Poking it to the right caused it to brighten again, so she dragged her finger to the left until the windows became pitch black.

“That just seems like an excessive use of technology,” she said to herself and changed.

Making her way out of her room and down the staircase, she wasn’t sure if she should check in with the rest of her new roommates or if she should get a bite to eat. The chatter coming from the living room sounded friendly enough and part of her wanted to get the awkwardness of introductions out of the way, but on the other hand, she hadn’t eaten anything other than an egg roll from a pop-up truck in Manhattan. When a gurgle came from her stomach, Anna knew her decision had been made for her.

The kitchen, as everything in this mansion, was a cross-section of the old and the new. The cabinets were all made of intricately carved redwood with marble countertops, all of which were probably put in this place before Contact Day. The floors were tiled in some geometric patterns of blue, yellow, and white. Even the dishes and silverware looked like they could be sold in some back-alley pawn shop to make a small fortune.

This all clashed with the appliances, each of which was state-of-the-art. There were multiple fridges and freezers lining the walls that looked like a miniature spaceship. The ovens and stoves glared at Anna, daring her to try to work them using the strange knobs and illuminated buttons that adorned them. 

She went to one of the fridges and opened it. A light slowly glowed to life, displaying pristine racks of vacuum-sealed corn, carrots, peas, and other vegetables. She moved on to the next fridge and inside, she found it full of drinks: milk, juice, soda, and a six-pack of beer with two bottles missing and a note that read, “Logan’s - DON’T TOUCH” with a smaller note added later, “That means you, Bobby.”

On her third try, Anna found a fridge full of leftovers and a random assortment of junk food. She made herself a plate of lasagna and took it to one of the microwaves, but was once again stopped in the face of new technology. There was no handle to open the door with.

“Having trouble, mein freund?” a voice said from behind her.

Anna turned and saw a man, or what looked like a man with blue skin, three digits on his hands and feet, and a tail that ended in a point. His eyes glowed yellow between a pair of pointed ears, making him look like some sort of a demon, but the smile on his face was friendly enough to show Anna that he was not.

“Yeah,” she said. “Ah’m a little technologically handicapped it seems.”

“The first time I tried using one of these, I turned my oatmeal into an ashen crisp,” the man said and then held up his hands. “Fat fingers, I guess.”

He pressed one of the buttons on the microwave, which released the door, and then took the plate from Anna and placed it in. He set it for a couple minutes and turned back to her with a big smile.

“Easy as that,” he said. “I’m Kurt, by the way. Or Nightcrawler.”

“Anna-Marie. Or Rogue.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” he said with a very formal bow. “I must say, most people scream or look like they want to scream when they meet me. My appearance doesn’t seem to affect you.”

Anna smiled. “Ah’ve traveled around quite a bit, sugah. The last group Ah ran with was full of mutants, many of ‘em a lot stranger looking than you.” She winced a little and shook her head. “Sorry, Ah didn’t mean it like that.”

“No need to apologize, fräulein,” Kurt replied. “We were all created in God’s image. For some of us, perhaps, his image was a little...stranger.”

The microwave dinged and just as Kurt was about to press the button to release the door, Anna beat him to it, releasing the steamy smells of reheated cheese, noodles, and tomato sauce.

“You need a fork,” Kurt said. In a puff of smoke, he disappeared and reappeared across the room, where he fished a fork out of a drawer and teleported back to her.

“So, you’re a teleporter,” Anna said, noting Kurt’s look of pride when she said it. “That’s a lot more fun than my power.”

“Which is?” 

“Ah touch you, you go into a coma and Ah get your memories and your powers. For a little while, at least.” Anna dug into the lasagna with a fork and blew on it and took a bite. She took a moment, relishing the taste, trying to remember the last meal she had that wasn’t either pre-packaged or bought from a food truck.

“Ah,” Kurt said. “Jean mentioned to us that you … ‘don’t do physical contact.’”

After another bite, Anna said, “Believe me, it’s for your own good.”

The door to the kitchen opened and in stepped a couple more people Anna had not met yet. One was a man who looked younger than he probably was, followed by a young woman, who was as young as she looked. The man was dressed in a pair of blue gym shorts and a white t-shirt while the woman was dressed in a pink tank and sweats, a pair of headphones hanging around her neck.

“Hey, Kurt, where’s the popcorn, buddy?” the man said and then he saw Anna. “Oh, hey. Sorry, I didn’t realize…”

“It’s okay,” Kurt said, gesturing to the couple. “Anna, this is Bobby Drake and Jubilation Lee.”

Bobby nodded while Jubilee offered a wave.

“How do you like the lasagna?” Bobby asked. “I tried a new recipe with it.”

Jubilee slugged him on the arm. “Oh, stop trying to take credit for Piotr’s meal.”

“Well, Ah suppose Ah’ll have to tell Piotr it was delicious,” she said.

While they chatted, Kurt had been teleporting around in quick BAMFs, grabbing bags of popcorn, shoving them in microwaves, and getting a stack of bowls. When he was finished, the kitchen smelled of popcorn and the bowls were all full and placed on different trays.

“Well,” Kurt said. “Do you want to meet the rest of our little family of mutants?”

“Sure,” Anna said, picking up a tray. “Lead the way.”

#

The journey from the fire escape up to the rooftop was the easy part of Remy’s journey. The tricky part was getting onto the balcony without either falling and breaking 90% of his bones or making too much noise and having the inhabitants hear him. There was a railing, but it was wood and, judging by the look of the rest of the mansion, might have been rotten. Inside, it was dark and motionless, so it was safe to assume there was no one inside, meaning he wouldn’t have to be too stealthy, but the occupant could also have easily been asleep.

Then he took a better look at the stone around the base of the roof. Parts of it jutted out, like stone support beams, and would no doubt be slick, but they would hold better than the railing.

Without taking another moment to think about how dumb of an idea this was, the man dried his hands, climbed over the railing of the fire escape and jumped. The rain swept into his eyes, stinging them, as if another force was trying to blind him in this most critical of moments, but through sheer force of will, he lept them open-- the timing had to be just right. In the fraction of a second, the man landed on the roof, sliding down at an alarming speed due to the rain, until the very last moment when he hooked around the stone and pulled around to the balcony. His hand started to slip, causing him to fall, but his reflexes kicked in and he landed on his feet in a crouched position.

“Dat coulda been bad,” Remy whispered to himself.

Straightening himself out, the man looked around inside from where he could be seen, but saw no person nor camera. So, he stepped through the open double doors.

The first thing he noticed was the smell. There was a fragrance in the air -- not unpleasant -- that permeated everything, which he could only describe as being “fresh”. He soon came to realize that it was from the plants that hung from the ceiling and crowded around the windows. The one nearest to him was a large-leafed plant with a light blue flower sprouting from the middle of its stem. He felt the leaf with caution and almost couldn’t believe it was real. This one plant, alone, would fetch a large price in the Market.

Next he noted the furniture: a large, unmade bed with clothes strewn about around it; a dresser with various rubbish on it including a necklace made out of a purple gemstone he didn't recognize (but pocketed anyways);and a table and chairs, also full of crumpled clothes and rubbish.

“The femme’s a little messy,” he said to himself again. “But she’s got taste.”

At that moment, the winds grew wild and lightning cracked nearby, the thunder following almost immediately. The storms had gotten worse in the city, but he hoped it would help cover up the minimal noise he would make. Still, he crept as silently as he could to the door and cracked it open. A set of stairs led to an open hallway below, which seemed to lead to split off into two more hallways. Outside of the door, he heard voices grow nearer, one male and one female. 

“She seemed nice enough,” said the woman.

“I'm sure she is,” said the man. “But why would the professor choose her? She's basically an energy leech.”

“Scott,” the woman said as the pair walked by the staircase. She was a redhead and he had a red visor over his eyes. The visor even seemed to be attached to his face.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I'm not judging her. I just wonder...why...ya know?”

“I may read minds,” the redhead said. “But even the professor’s thoughts are out of my reach. I'm sure Anna wouldn't be here unless she had a key role to play in all this.”

The voices faded away, leaving the man as he made a mental note to stay from whomever Anna was.

After another quick scan of the hallway, he pushed the door open, but made it no further than an inch before he felt a hand grasp his arm and hurl him backwards, causing him to skid on his back into the clothes.

“Damn,” the man said, picking himself up. “Not many people can sneak up on me.”

“Who are you?” asked a woman who stood before him. At first, she appeared to him as the Angel of Death, her black wings spread wide and her eyes ablaze with fire, but when he took another look, he realized she was a woman, although maybe not human.

“Merci. I must've taken a wrong turn.”

Her wings flared, showing off a pair of talons at their joint statement. “Lie to me again and I will rid you of your spine and feed it to you.”

“I'm just a common thief, looking to score a quick buck,” the man said, his hands raised in an attempt to assuage her.

“No common thief would be able to break into this place.”

“Anyone can walk through an open door, cherie,” the man said.

The winged woman thought for a moment. “What do you want?”

Remy smiled. “Just a tour of the place, specifically what ya’ll got in the basement. Or the sub-basement. Or even the second sub-basement.”

“No,” the woman said plainly. 

“Shame.” With his arms still outstretched, he produced a pair of playing cards in his knuckles. The cards themselves began to glow pink. “Woulda made things a lot easier for you.”

#

Anna sat on an overstuffed chair by herself, on display in a semi-circle of her new roommates who were sitting in couches, loveseats, or just on the floor. They were mostly looking at her, except for the one with the metal wings (William was it? Or Warren?), who seemed distracted. She met Piotr Rasputin and his sister Illyana, Xian Coy Manh, Kitty Pryde, and James Proudstar. Of course, Anna forgot half of their names as soon as they were introduced, but she would worry about that some other time.

“I love your accent,” Kitty said. “Where are you from originally?”

“Mississippi,” Jubilee replied. “She already said that.”

“You’re a long way from home,” Bobby said.

“Not as far as some,” Xian said.

Kurt appeared in the center of the room after teleporting the empty bowls back to the kitchen. With him he had more refreshments, including beer and wine. Bobby grabbed a glass of wine and began to hand it to Jubilee before pulling it back with a snide grin. Jubilee responded by mouthing an obscenity to him.

“Well, what do you think of the institute so far?” Kurt asked, offering the tray to Anna.

“Ah feel a little like Ah just joined a sorority or something,” she said, taking a beer.

“Some days, it definitely feels like it,” Xian said.

“Who would be president?” Scott said as he entered the living room with Jean.

“Do we need to put it to a vote, Mr. Summers?” Jean asked.

Anna noted that she was now in sweats and a t-shirt, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Scott, similarly, was in gym shorts and a t-shirt, his hair damp and combed to the side.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dare.” He smiled and shook his head. 

“How was the Danger Room?” Bobby asked. “Looks like things got...physical.”

Jean rolled her eyes. “Maybe you’re a freaky masochist that likes to get ‘physical’ in the Danger Room, but not I.”

“By the way,” Scott said, his face growing redder and redder. “Kurt, you and Xian are on-deck. Neal and Betsy are suiting up to start a session now.”

Warren perked up at that and watched Kurt walk over to Xian and extend a hand to help her from her seat. 

“Shall we take the stairs, fräulein, or shall we take the fast way?”

Xian took his hand and said, “Let’s just take the stairs. The last time you teleported me, I felt nauseous for the rest of the night.”

“Do you guys mind if I tag along?” Warren asked.

Kurt and Xian looked at each other and shrugged. “Sure, Warren.”

Together, the three of them left as the rest of the group looked on in silence. Once they were out of earshot, Kitty was the first to break.

“Oh man, poor Betsy,” she said. “Warren wears his jealousy on his sleeve like those new cufflinks he bought last week.”

“Oh yeah,” Jubilee said, rolling her eyes. “Woe is Betsy. She’s got all the men falling at her feet.”

“The last time a man fell at my feet,” Illyana said, “it was because a demon I was hunting had used him as a vessel. So, I was forced to tear his heart out.”

The room was again silent. Piotr, a look of sadness on his face, placed his hand on his sister’s shoulder and said, “Maybe not the best time to talk about your time in Limbo.”

Once again seeing the opportunity to change the subject, Scott noticed Anna in her chair and waved to her. “Hi, you must be Anna Marie. I’m Scott.”

“Nice to meet you,” Anna said for what felt like the 20th time that night. 

Scott then went down the “Get to Know Your New Housemate” checklist of questions, each of which she had also answered already that night. She felt the weight of everyone watching her answer, which began to dig into her head. Were they judging her or was this just a spectacle to them? Which was worse?

Before she could decide and before the conversation could go on too much longer, a muffled boom came from outside. Everyone froze and looked towards the window, almost expecting the walls to come down on them. Without another moment’s hesitation, Scott snapped to attention and something came over him.

“That’s not from the Danger Room,” James said. Scott nodded in agreement.

“Bobby, Piotr, James,” he said. “You’re with me. The rest of you, stay here.”

“I’m going too,” Jean said.

“I need you to contact the professor,” he replied.

“I can do both.”

Scott, either not wanting to waste anymore time or because he actually believed her, nodded and took off running towards the door. The rest followed, with Bobby the last to go with them. He set his wine on the table, spilling a little onto the glass surface, and pointed to Anna as he left.

“Don’t let Jubilee drink that!”

#

The rain turned into a downpour. Thunder rumbled at a steady peace, as if it were the heartbeat of the world, and lightning turned the night into day in uneven flashes. The alleyway was now deserted and the air smelled more like smoke from the doused barrels.

Remy caught his breath as he and his opponent studied one another. She stood before him, stone-faced and poised for an attack. 

“What's your name, anyway?” the man asked.

“They call me ‘Deathbird’,” she said.

“Dat seems appropriate,” he said.

“And you are?”

Remy also paused for a moment. “Gambit.”

“Surrender, Gambit,” Deathbird said. “And any injuries you sustain tonight will be minimal.”

“Now, Deathbird,” Remy replied, “do you even know who it is running the show in that mansion? Do you know who you work for?”

“Of course I do. Professor Xavier is a credit to the mutant race.”

Remy shook his head with a pitied grin. “She's really got you brainwashed in there, huh?”

No reply came from the woman. Instead, she lowered her wings and flew at Remy, who dropped to a knee and grabbed for the ground and somersaulted out of the way. The moment he regained his footing, he retaliated, his cards ready in one hand and his staff in the other.

Remy charged his cards and threw them. Deathbird used her wings to produce a gust of wind that sent the cards into a crooked spin. They collided with the wall of a building next to them, spraying debris onto the woman but leaving her otherwise unharmed, which gave Remy another moment to pounce.

With his bo staff extended, Remy jumped towards the woman, meaning to bring the staff down onto her head to knock her unconscious. At the last second, however, when the staff was just about to make contact, Deathbird parried with her forearm and slashed at the man with her wing. Remy dodged it and then parried with his staff.

“Deathbird!” came a voice in the alley. It was Jean and she was followed by Bobby, in full ice form; James, a pair of daggers in hand; Colossus, his indestructible, metallic skin shining in the neon rain; and Scott, his visor gleaming red in anticipation of the fight.

“Hey,” Remy said, picking himself up and shaking off the rubble from his coat. “Dis is between me and her.”

“I'm afraid that if you fight one X-Man, you're fighting all of them,” Scott said.

Remy knew that's what this man with the visor would say, but he didn't care. It was only meant to give him enough time to find his cards and charge the entire pack.

“So be it.”

Pinching the cards back, Remy released them and sprayed all 52 of his cards in a scattered trajectory. One by one, the cards exploded around the four X-Men, who dove out of the way. Colossus was the only one to be very close to the explosions, and although none of them hurt him, they were still able to throw him off his feet.

The first to recover was Scott, who pressed his visor and sent a red beam through the air at Remy, but he dodged it as he leaped past Deathbird.

“I can't get a read on him,” Jean said. “He's blocking everything I throw at him.

This news had troubling implications to Scott. He had watched Jean subdue ten men at once with just a thought. But this one seemed unphased.

“Sounds like we need to throw something else at him, then.”

#

There were four more explosions since the initial one that sent the others out to investigate. Anna knew this because Kitty had counted each one.

“Why aren't we out there?” Kitty asked.

“That's...a good question,” Jubilee replied. “We’re all technically adults, right? They might need us out there.”

“All in favor of…” Kitty began to say, but it was too late. Jubilee was already running for the door, with everyone but Anna following her. 

Anna looked to Kitty, a little unsure of what to do, but Kitty just shrugged.

“The people have spoken,” she said and took off, Anna close behind her.

Outside, the scene was chaotic. There were five X-Men fighting one lone figure in a trench coat and holding a staff. The lone figure seemed to be dodging every attack the X-Men threw at him, but he became increasingly slow with each dodge.

James got closer to Remy, slashing away with quick precision and even landed a cut on his chest, but Remy was able to parry and answer with a hit to James’s stomach. James did not let up, though, and kept stabbing and slashing at Remy, using his brute force to drive him to the wall.

With his back against the wall of the neighboring building, Remy displayed a burst of energy as he hit James high on the chest, then across the knee, making him buckle, before kicking him backwards. James landed at the feet of his teammates, who were now closing in on Remy.

With us lungs burning and multiple points on his body throbbing with pain, Remy pulled himself up with the aid of a dumpster near him and caught his breath. He wasn't out of the fight just yet. He had one more trick up his sleeve.

“You sure I can't interest you in surrendering?” he asked.

“I'm afraid not,” Scott said. “Unless it's your surrender.”

“Thought so,” Remy replied. 

“Scott,” Jean shouted suddenly. “The dumps--”

With a kick, Remy released the glowing pink dumpster in their direction, which resulted in a deafening boom.

Anna watched the explosion push Scott up into the air towards the wall. Despite her better judgement -- or perhaps because of it -- she ran and flew up into the air, catching him before he could make contact. For a moment, Scott looked dazed, in a dreamlike state, not believing he was flying. Then he looked up to Anna and nodded a ‘Thanks’.

The explosion dazed everyone at the ground for a moment, allowing for Remy to get a good head start on the fire escape. He was almost halfway up when Deathbird registered the deception. She leaped up into the air, flying to the roof until she had cut off Remy at the top.

“You have fought well, human,” she said. “Now I will kill you.”

“I believe you could,” Remy said. He turned around to escape the other way but a white disc appeared, and out stepped a blonde teenager along with a girl chewing bubble gum, the latter’s hands beginning to sparkle. Then he felt a tugging on his pant leg and when he looked down, he saw another young woman phasing through the stairs.

“Time to bring you back back down to earth,” she said 

Before Remy could react, he was sinking through the escape, level by level. Each time, he could feel the metal go through him, but it didn’t hurt. The sensation was more like a tingle in his skin and he thought he could taste nickels in his mouth. 

The ground that he hit, however, did hurt. But the real pain he felt was in his mind. Something was worming its way into his brain, struggling to get in, but inching in no less.

Anna dropped Scott back down on the ground, where Jean awaited him. She asked if he was hurt and he was, but he shook his head no.

“You know you can’t lie to me that easily,” Jean said. “We should get you to Reyes.”

In her periphery, Anna saw a figure approach from the shadows. This figure put their hand up to their head and the next thing she knew, this rogue mutant was on his knees, clutching his own head.

“Get outta my...,” he said with gritted teeth. And then he was unconscious.

“Ah,” the figure said. “It seems we had an intruder.”

“Professor,” Scott said, standing at attention.

A woman stepped forward, no taller than five feet and completely bald, with a knowing smile on her face. She was dressed in plain, khaki-colored clothes, with a pair of riding boots and had her hands clasped behind her back.

“You must be Anna,” the woman said with a nod. “A pleasure to finally meet your acquaintance. My name is Cassandra Nova Xavier. Welcome to my school.”

#

Epilogue:

The streets around the Xavier Mansion were always restless, pedestrians walking to and from home or work in a seemingly endless stream. Below the sidewalks, where the lights of the city penetrated the sewers through grates and storm drains, there was another that was returning home from work. He shuffled along the ledge, careful not to step into the sewage, until he came to a ladder, which he climbed up and through a manhole cover right in front of the mansion.

The man didn’t knock, he just opened the door and collapsed to his knees.

“I’m home!” he said and then collapsed in a pool of blood, some of it his.

Jubilee, who had stayed up late to watch TV, tore around the corner and stopped when she saw the man unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

“Logan?” she said. “What happened to you?”


	2. Breaking Down Walls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Professor Xavier tries to help Rogue understand her powers and attempts to find out how Gambit was able to break into the mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to mess with the pacing of this a little bit while I was editing because I noticed Nova's timeline was a little confusing. I hope it makes sense now.

The only light in the room came from a narrow beam where the sliding metal doors met. The slit wasn't wide enough to bring out much light, but Remy’s eyes had adjusted almost as soon as he opened them. That was three hours ago. Now he sat on the floor, arms and legs bound in shackles that were wrapped around a steel beam in the corner of the room. During his conscious time, so far, he got a good layout of the room he was in. It was small, only about five-feet by ten-feet and had computers all around him as well as maps on the walls. From what he could determine, this was some sort of a battle room. 

The other thing Remy did in those three hours was attempt to find a way to unlock the shackles. They covered his hands in metal spheres so he wasn't able to use his fingers, but that didn't matter. He always kept a pick between his cheek and gums for situations like this, but that was gone now.

Even his powers weren't working on the shackles, so that meant they doubled as power suppressors. If he wasn't currently trying to break out of them, he would be impressed.

Movement outside disrupted the beam. The doors parted, bathing the room in artificial light from the hallways, making Remy flinch away and snap his eyes shut.

“And how is our thief feeling today?” a voice asked.

As his eyes began to adjust, Remy looked around, noticing the lights in the room were now on and the woman, Cassandra Nova Xavier, sat in front of him.

“I'd be a lot better if you could get me out of these cuffs,” he said.

She frowned. “I'm sorry, I know this isn't the most humane way to hold someone prisoner, but we've never had prisoners before, so we’re currently constructing a cell just for you. Still, that doesn't mean you're not being looked after.”

Remy looked down at his chest and noticed the cut he had received had been bandaged up.

“That was the work of our resident surgeon. And the cuffs our resident inventor.” She leaned in on her chair. “Why are you here, Gambit? Or do you prefer Remy?”

“You mean you haven't rooted around my head yet?” Remy asked.

“I could. And I probably will,” the Nova said. “But I thought I'd ask anyways.”

Remy’s face went blank.

“Who hired you to break in?” she continued. “Was it the Thieves Guild? Magnus? Sinister? Obviously someone gave you enough of a TP block so you could find the school.”

“Sounds like you got a lotta enemies,” Remy replied.

Nova smirked. “Not for long.”

“Your ‘students’ know about these enemies?”

Nova sighed and sat back in her chair. For a moment, the facade she put on of a cold headmistress of a school slipped and she looked tired. Remy didn’t know a lot about this woman but the mental image he had made compared to what he saw here was jarring.

“This conversation is going nowhere, Remy LeBeau,” she said. “I would happily cooperate with you if you would only cooperate with me, but I have a feeling you won’t. So, we’ll do things your way.”

And with that, the facade was back and Remy could feel the woman in his thoughts again. This time, though, she wasn’t as gentle.

#

“...At this time, it is unknown who the assailant is that murdered Mr. Trask, but we are looking for a mutant man, around five-three, and he is to be considered dangerous,” Captain Thompson said on the TV before it changed back to a talking head behind a desk. “In other news, the native people of the Savage Land have staged a mass protest against Oscorp Industries, who recently announced plans to develop the land into housing and for commercial properties. We go now to…”

“Unbelievable,” Bobby said from the couch, changing the channel.

“What?” James asked from the floor. “Got something against the Savage Landers? They have a right to be angry.”

“No, it’s Trask.” He shook his head. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. He is—was—a piece of human garbage. But a renegade mutant going around murdering in the name of mutants is the last thing we need.”

“But how many mutant deaths is he responsible for?” James asked.

Bobby shrugged. “That’s besides the point. That’s what due process is for.”

“What do you think, Anna?” James asked.

She had been sitting towards the back of the room, trying to go undetected or at least escape having to participate in this discussion. So, she just shook her head.

“Ah really don’t know,” she said.

Bobby, not satisfied with that answer, said, “All I’m saying is the guy probably deserved it, but his supporters are going to be foaming at the mouth, now.”

“Yeah,” James replied. “But he literally grandfathered the Sentinel Program…”

Their voices faded away from Anna’s attention as she heard footsteps grow and stop right behind her.

“Anna,” Jean said, from the entryway. “Do you have a second?”

Anna jolted up from the couch. “What’s up?”

Jean led her towards the kitchen, but stopped at a door that was in the side of the staircase. She opened it up, revealing that it wasn't a broom closet like Anna had expected, but a large elevator shaft. Jean pressed her hand against a touch pad to the right and it scanned her in blue light. The metallic door shuddered open and revealed a compartment lined with grated walls. 

“Professor Xavier wants to see us,” she said, standing aside for Anna to enter.

“What for?” Anna asked.

Jean pressed a button labeled ‘2SB’ and doors closed. After another moment, they descended.

“She must want to get to work on your powers,” she said.

Anna hadn't really gotten a chance to speak with Jean since her first night. Jean was busy, helping the professor down wherever they were headed now, or was by Scott’s side. The dumpster explosion didn't seem to hurt him very seriously, but it had affected him and Jean saw this. She had also heard rumors of another man’s arrival that Anna hadn’t met.

“The other night,” Anna finally said. “Why weren’t you able to get into the man's head like Professor Xavier was?

Jean looked at her surprised. Either she hadn't thought about it at all or she has only thought about that.

“Well,” she said. “From what I can figure, part of it is that he had some major walls built up in his brain from some other telepath. The other part is this.”

Jean turned her head and ran her fingers through the side of her hair, pulling up enough of it to expose a shaved patch and within it a small metal square that was attached to her head. The patch was metal, with an X symbol that pulsated red.

“This is my restraining bolt,” Jean explained. “The professor gave this to me to keep my powers in check. Without it, my telepathy and telekinesis is strong—maybe even rivaling hers—but I don't have control.”

“Sounds kinda like a muzzle, if Ah’m being honest,” Anna replied.

Jean’s face went white and her eyes drifted to the table. Anna was about to apologize for the comment, but Jean spoke first.

“When I was a girl, on the first day that I had powers, I remember feeling so terrified of them that I tried to deny they even existed. I thought it was this thing that was wrong with me. There was no set of powers that could have been given to me that would make me want to be a mutant. And if my parents found out…”

Tears began to crowd the bottom of Jean’s eyes, ready to descend at a moment’s notice.

“But then I embraced it. I started using it for stupid kid things like getting to know ahead of time what my parents were getting me for my birthday or to make the school bully’s Salisbury steak float in the air to scare him. But that was just the tip of the iceberg, really. If I had…” 

The tears breached and Jean paused to wipe them away with her sleeve.

“If I had my muzzle earlier, my parents would still be alive.”

The gap between ‘kid stuff’ and ‘dead parents’ was large and troubling to Anna, but she didn't press the matter. 

“I'm sorry,” Jean said, composing herself and trying to wipe away the pain with a forced smile. “It’s just…I have this inhibitor because it’s safer for everyone around me.”

Anna nodded. “Listen, sugah, if there’s one person who understands the dangers of their powers, it’s me.”

The elevator stopped and the doors opened, revealing a long hallway made up of black tile, white lights lining the floor where it met with the walls. Immediately down the hall was a circular door with another scan-pad. Two other doors stood on the opposing walls at the left and right. Jean led Anna to the door with the scan-pad and scanned her hand. They entered a dark room with computer monitors sitting at a control panel. Behind the panel was a wall of glass that looked down upon a room the size of a gymnasium. A man behind the console as a pair of mutants fought in the room before them.

The room had been projected to look like an urban environment; brick and metal walls all around with street debris cluttering the concrete ground. Two seven-foot robots blocked Kitty Pryde and Piotr Rasputin from getting to a pair of civilians, a young boy and a girl. Piotr hurled himself into the fray, trying to take both robots down while Kitty went left, phasing through the buildings. A third appeared in the room out of thin air and targeted exactly where Kitty was about to phase out of the wall. Piotr tried to warn his teammate, but the distraction was enough for the robots he fought to wrestle out of his control and pin him to the ground.

Anna gasped, but Jean smiled and said, “Just wait.”

In a matter of seconds, both Kitty and Piotr were sent across the room into the wall. Piotr recovered quickly, throwing debris at the robots while Kitty took a moment to shake herself off. She said something to her teammate, who replied with a smile. He picked her up and threw her at the robots.

Anna clenched her fists as she watched the woman about to collide with two tons of metal, but she phased through all three and somersaulted to the floor, holding something in her hand. The third robot fell to the ground as Kitty dropped a wad of circuits to the floor and ran to the children.

She got down to her knees and held them, bracing as one of the robots smashed down with both fists, but they were gone when it looked to see the destruction. Confused, it turned around to Piotr ripping the head from the other robot and tossed it to its ally. The robot batted it away and charged at the metallic man, leading with its shoulder.

It was then that Nova entered the observation deck, wearing a frown. She walked directly to the seat next to the man and sat, observing. She said something in a hushed tone to the man, whose reply made her frown even more.

Piotr grappled the robot, gritting his teeth and yelling loud enough to be heard in the observation room until the robot’s metallic appendages buckled and broke under the stress. With one last feat of strength, Piotr plunged his hands into the robot’s chest and spread them with violent force, bisecting it. Kitty reappeared behind him with the children, safe and unharmed.

“Simulation ended,” a voice said and everything from the robots to the buildings to the children in Kitty’s arms disappeared, leaving a large, empty room made up of silver-paneled walls.

Nova pressed the intercom on the console. “That will be all. We’ll meet later to discuss your tactics.”

Kitty and Piotr nodded and left the room through an entrance below. Nova turned to Anna and Jean and smiled, but it felt strangely cold.

“Anna, thank you for coming,” she said and then gestured to the man seated next to her. “This is Forge. He is one of our senior members and a master inventor.”

The man nodded. “Hi, Anna. Nice to meet you.”

“Forge is currently working on a newer version of our power inhibitors that would allow you to touch someone without your powers activating.”

Anna’s mouth fell open. “Do you think it can really be done?”

“I believe so,” Forge said.

“He’s being modest,” Nova said. “Forge’s mutant power is the ability to invent. If he can think it, he can make it.”

Anna nodded, although in the back of her mind, she thought of all of the different devices that were supposed to suppress her powers, but always failed. “Ah don't want you to think Ah'm ungrateful, but Ah don't see how this does anything to help my powers.”

“This would just be something to help the side-effects of your mutation,” Nova said. “I believe the secret to your powers lies in your psyche, just as with any mutant.”

“So Ah'll be able to touch people,” Anna replied. “But what possible benefit do Ah get from siphoning others powers at will?”

“It's not about siphoning,” Nova said. “It's about storing. You say the powers fade, but we don't know why. You could very well be a living library of every metahuman you've come into contact with.”

Anna thought about this scenario, the notion never having crossed her mind in the past. 

“And you think you can do that for me?”

“Yes,” Nova said. “And that's why I need Jean. It’s possible to get through telepathic blocks, but sometimes the mind fights a telepath who is trying to unblock their mind. So, Jean will be taking you to a place in your mind where you can relax while I get in and try to dislodge the block. Without her, it could be...painful.”

For a moment, Anna could have sworn she saw a smile creep on Nova’s face. Even if Anna didn't want to try, she didn't think either woman would take ‘No’ for an answer. 

So she shrugged and said, “Sure.”

“Excellent,” Nova said and nodded to Forge. “Let's enter the Danger Room.”

Nova and Jean walked to a circular platform in the corner of the room and waited for Anna to join them. When she did, Forge pressed a button at the control console and Anna felt the platform descend. The ride was short and the shaft opened up below so they were in the Danger Room.

The room was cold and smelled sterile, like an operating room. It also seemed to emit a humming sound, the origin of which Anna was unable to pinpoint, but there was a kind of energy that seemed to reverberate throughout the room. Nova walked to the center of the room and the two other women joined her.

“Is it necessary to do this here?” Anna asked, expecting giant robots to form out of nowhere.

“Since we don’t know the extent of your powers, we don’t know what the risks are,” Nova said. 

“If Ah lose control, it’s best that Ah lose it here,” Anna said.

“In so many words,” Nova replied. “Forge, initiate Protocol AA10.”

The hum in the room grew louder and suddenly their surroundings were transformed so the room now looked more like a part of the architecture upstairs. The silver paneling turned to wood, with antique paintings and bronze wall sconces hanging from it. Leather couches, loveseats, and chairs appeared around the room, making it feel a little less empty. Even the air seemed to take on a new scent that almost smelled like the hickory upstairs.

“Is this a little more comfortable?” Nova asked. Anna nodded. “Good. Take a seat and we will begin.”

Anna walked to a loveseat and sat, almost expecting to go through the construct, but it held her. It was even comfortable. Jean pulled a chair up in front of her and Nova stood behind Anna.

“Anna,” Jean said. “I want you to close your eyes and think about something that makes you happy, whether it’s a specific memory or if it’s just your ‘happy place’, okay?”

Anna did as Jean asked and thought of a day that didn’t feel that long ago, but was. 

#

It had only been a couple months since Anna left home. Her parents—her new parents—drove her to a state park in Southeastern Nebraska where they were to meet one of their contacts. They chose the park because it was underfunded, understaffed, and one of the last places in the world where a city hadn’t cropped up, so they would be secluded.

Anna sat in the back of the car, staring at the trees above her as they drove through the road that wound all around the park, reddish dirt protruding up from the sides of the road. There were wooden signs all around the park, brown with yellow letters and numbers that had been carved into them, which guided them through the woods.

“The riverfront,” her mother said as they passed by the sign. She was blind, but still able to navigate her partner with ease. “That’s where we want to go.”

Her other mother nodded and they took a turn that led down a very steep hill that looked like it was gated off during the winter. Before long, they passed a wide opening in the trees where there were picnic tables, charcoal grills, and a large children's playset. There was no one around the entire area, save for a couple of hikers venturing into the woods on the very edge of the clearing. Anna looked at them longingly having not seen such an open area and empty playset.

“Ah have to pee,” she said, spying a small wooden structure that claimed to be a latrine.

“Can’t you hold it?” her other mother asked.

“Ah gotta go,” Anna replied.

The other mother sighed and pulled over to the side of the road in front of the latrine. “Be quick, Rogue.”

Anna popped the latch to the door and got out before the car was even parked. She ran to the latrine and went inside for a couple minutes. She didn’t actually use it as the place was hot and sticky with the late August air and smelled like human waste mixed with bleach. She just stood for a couple minutes, trying to formulate her next step. When she left it, she stared at the playset for a moment before running back to the car.

Her other mother rolled the window down. “What? Is something wrong?”

“Can Ah hang out here for a bit?” she asked. “You can come get me when you’re done.”

Her other mother laughed. “Aren’t you a little old for this? Come on. We need to get to the cave.”

“Please?” Anna asked.

Her mother turned to her partner and placed a hand on her leg. “It’s okay, Raven. He won’t be here for another 15 minutes. We can stay for a little bit.”

Raven’s stern expression melted away with a sigh and she killed the engine. “Fine. I need to stretch my legs anyway.”

And with that, Anna ran down to the park with her parents, where they watched their daughter swing and be the child she didn’t get a chance to be before they found her. Every once in a while, Anna would look to her parents as they sat at the picnic table, holding hands and laughing. They stayed there for half an hour before they realized the time.

#

Remy’s head throbbed. It felt as if someone had just run their fingers along with ridges and folds of his brain, rifling through it for information. He sat in darkness, unable to think about much else, other than the last hour he just spent with Nova. She said nothing and sat across from him, focusing her telepathy on Remy’s thoughts.

At first, he tried to resist, but after a few moments of excruciating pain, he decided to relax and let her take whatever info she could. But she couldn't. Remy’s mental block was solid, with no discernable cracks that she could worm her way through.

That didn't make it any less painful. So after an hour, Nova sighed in disgust and left. In her place, another woman walked in followed by the man with the visor, Scott. She wore scrubs underneath a white medical coat and carried with her a metal tool box.

“Dr. Cecelia Reyes,” she introduced herself as she set the box on the table. She opened it and revealed a series of compartments, which reminded Remy of a tackle box like what he took with his father when they went fishing.

Reyes pulled out gauss, cotton balls, and a clear plastic bottle.

“We need to clean and re-dress that cut,” she said. There was an edge on her voice, revealing a hint of discomfort as she tried to stay as professional as possible.

“Fine wit’ me ,” Remy replied.

“Don’t try anything,” Scott said. He folded his arms, revealing a bandage on his left forearm.

“Dat from the other night?” Remy asked.

Scott said nothing. Reyes set the toolbox down and opened it, pulling from it a small light. She shined it in Remy’s left eye followed by his right.

“Huh. Your eyes don’t respond to stimuli normally. I might need to do a scan,” she said. A lock of hair fell over her brow, which she brushed back. “Then we can see if you have any other lasting damage to your brain.”

“You can examine me anytime, chere,” Remy replied. He looked up to Scott with a grin, who seemed to only grow more tense.

Reyes rolled her eyes as she pulled the bandages from Remy’s chest. She was careful, but firm, making him wince.

“This is healing nicely,” Reyes said. She proceeded to clean it with a damp piece of cloth. “How did you find this place, anyways?”

“A psychic block was put on him,” Scott said. “Who gave you that, by the way?”

“Now that’s the million dollar question,” Remy said. “I’ll just say my employer has a lot of resources and they're not just limited to telepathic blocks. If you keep me here, they will send someone to let me out. And believe me, I'm a helluva lot nicer than whoever they're sending.”

“I think we’ll take our chances,” Scott said.

Reyes ran her hand along Remy’s chest as she placed the new bandage on his cut. Then she brought out an ice pack and fastened it to the cut. Immediately, he felt the cold penetrate the bandaging, but it brought a small measure of relief.

“That’s for the swelling,” she said. Her hair fell back over her face and she brushed it back again in frustration.

“Merci,” Remy replied.

Reyes was about to reply when she stopped and pressed her finger to her ear. 

“He’s up?” There was a pause and then she started gathering her supplies. “I need to go, Logan woke up.”

“He did?” Scott asked.

“Only for a moment and then he went back out,” she got up and took her bag. Turning back around, she said to Remy, “I’ll be back in ten to take the ice pack off.”

“See you in ten,” Remy replied.

As the two of them left, Scott glanced at Remy one more time before, who flashed an innocent smile in reply. And then they left and the door latch clicked.

When their footsteps faded away, Remy looked down at his cuffs and then at the floor. He saw why the woman had been having trouble with her hair staying in place. A bobby pin laid on the floor at his feet.

#

A warm breeze blew through the trees as Anna pulled herself up from the swing and began walking to her parents’ car. Raven and Irene also ran back to the car as the wind grew stronger. Something was wrong. This wasn’t part of her memory. Anna panicked and ran for the car, reaching for the door handle but the wind’s strength grew, pulling her back off the ground. In one last push, Anna lost her grip, sucking her up into the sky. She wasn’t scared, though. There was something comforting about what was happening, so she let the sky take her.

And then she woke up.

“Hello, Anna,” Jean said, seated in front of her. “Welcome back.”

“What...where…” she said in reply.

“Take your time,” Nova said. “Coming back from a psychic trance such as what you just experienced can be very disorienting.”

“What happened?” she asked. “Did it work?”

“Did I unlock the secrets to your powers? Not yet, at least. But we made great progress.” Nova stood and massaged her temple. “That will be all for today.”

Anna was about to reply with more questions, but Jean was already helping her up from the loveseat. They went to the lift, leaving the professor as they ascended up to the control room. After a silent goodbye to Forge, the two of them left and headed back for the elevator.

“Are you okay, Anna?” Jean asked.

“Ah will be. Just a little light-headed is all. Ah think Ah just need a sandwich and a nap.”

“I think I can help you with that.” She paused for a moment, her expression growing a little colder. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Probably,” she said. “But go ahead anyways.”

“While you were under, you kept saying ‘Cody’ over and over,” Jean said. “Who was Cody?”

“Ah said that? He wasn’t even in my dream or hallucination or whatever.” 

Jean nodded. “Sometimes these kinds of procedures can bring out little bits of your psyche out without you knowing. It’s like talking in your sleep.”

Anna sighed. “He was my first kiss. And the first time my powers manifested.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Anna said. “Maybe Ah need a muzzle.”

Jean wanted to reach out and reciprocate the comfort Anna had shown her earlier, but she stopped dead in her tracks.

“Everything okay?” Anna asked.

Jean stared down at the floor for another moment before she looked to her friend and said, “I’m sorry, I need to go back to the med-bay. Logan woke up. You know the way back, right?”

Anna looked down the hallway where the elevator was in sight and smiled. “Ah’ll manage.”

“Okay, talk to you later,” she said and ran back down the hall.

So, his name’s Logan, Anna thought to herself. She wondered why this man was so important and yet so shrouded in secrecy. Maybe she could prod some info out of Jubilee.

As Anna walked down the hallway, thinking of ways to bribe the girl, movement up ahead interrupted her thoughts. It was subtle to the point that it seemed like nothing more than an illusion from the light bouncing from the sheem of the black walls. But there was something unnatural about the movement of the shadow.

“Is someone there?” Anna asked the shadow, but there was no answer. She walked down to the end and noticed that the door to the room to her right was closing. Jean had referred to it as Cerebro earlier and made it sound like it was off-limits to almost everyone. Everyone but Jean and Nova, who were back in the Med-Bay or the Danger Room. And there was a thief being kept here somewhere who seemed to be more resourceful than they had given him credit.

Anna smelled a rat.

#

It took a whole two minutes to undo the cuffs once Reyes and Scott left but then another minute for Remy to get to his feet. He didn’t realize how light-headed he had become until he tried to stand before dropping right back to the floor, spots popping up and blotting his vision. But time was not on his side right now, so after he caught his breath, he stood back up and went to the door.

Outside, he saw the elevator to his left. He started to approach it when he saw another door just to his right and realized, from the floor plans he knew roughly about, it was Cerebro. Escape seemed like the most important thing in the moment, but escape from here would be easy. Escape from his employer, however, would be next to impossible if he left without what Cerebro held.

The sound of voices further pushed him into the door, which slid open and let him through.

The first thing Remy noticed was how cold the room was. When he felt it, he wondered for a moment if he had mistakenly entered a walk-in freezer. Then, he saw why the room was so cold. In the darkness, Remy noticed the walls flashing in small blue and yellow lights and when he looked closer, he saw that they weren't walls but processing towers that were connected by wires that all lead to the center of the room. There the wires converged into a single cable that connected to a metallic helmet.

“Cerebro,” Remy said. “I thought you'd be larger.”

“Same could be said for you, sugah,” a voice said from behind him. “It's Gambit, isn't it?”

He turned and saw a woman walking doorway. The woman. The one he saw through the window when he was on the fire escape.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” she said.

In the moments leading up to his answer, Remy took stock of his current situation. He had nothing on him but his pants and could barely walk around. The woman in front of him was a mutant and, judging from her performance the other night, she could fly and possibly had enhanced strength. The flight wouldn't be a problem in this small of a room, but the strength could.

“Got turned around, I guess. Was looking for the exit.”

“Not good enough of an answer, Ah’m afraid.”

“Listen, from what I gather, you're new here,” he said, slowly inching towards the door. “Dat means you can still leave before Xavier really digs her claws into you.”

The statement caught Anna off-guard. Despite the fact that the man was a thief, she could still sense a shred of truth in what we said.

“What's your name, chere?” he asked.

“Rogue,” she replied. 

“I'm Remy. Dat’s my real name,” he said. He glanced at the door. It was just a few feet if he could muster up a sudden burst of energy. “I know you got no reason to trust me…”

“You're right.”

“...but what's goin’ on here ain't right.” He gestured all around him. He watched as Anna stepped closer inside, watching his gestures closely but not watching the exit close enough. “I mean, what’s with all the secrecy?”

“And you’ve been so transparent with us since you’ve been here,” Anna said, rolling her eyes. 

“Well I don't torture people,” he said. And he leaped through the door.

Anna reacted slower than she could afford, allowing Remy to get past her, but she was able to dart forward out of the door on his heels. She grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him around, but he pulled back, ripping off her glove. The sudden naked feeling of her hand caused Anna to try and cover it with her other hand.

“S’pose this’ll be what I remember you by,” he said, taking the glove with him as he ran.

Remy used the distraction to push forward, his head searing with heat and his eyes growing bleary. He got to the elevator, relieved to see it open and ready for him to enter. Slamming his body into the back of the elevator, he put his weight on the railing lining the elevator and pressed the Level 1 button. 

As the doors began to close, he saw Anna flying towards him at a tremendous speed, her gloved hand forward while she tucked her other behind her. She made it into the elevator at the last moment, trapping Remy in with her.

“Seems you’re at the end of the line,” Anna said, tapping the lock to keep the doors from closing.

“Maybe,” Remy said. He laid his hands on the railing and attempted to charge it with kinetic energy. Either the blast would kill him or the woman would, but he wasn't ready to submit and be locked away. 

But nothing happened, not even a pink glow. His powers were gone.

So, Remy dropped down to a knee and kicked Anna’s legs from beneath her. As she fell, Remy raised himself up with the assistance of the railing and stepped over her.

In one last attempt to apprehend the man, Anna reached out for his bare ankle and grabbed it. The man froze for a second and he looked at her, scared, and dropped to the floor. He was unconscious.

Anna felt Remy inside of her mind before she even realized that she grabbed him with her bare hand.

#

Epilogue:

Victor Creed sat in a room illuminated only by the wall of televisions that stood before him. The man watched through the eyes of Remy LeBeau, as he escaped from confinement and made it to Cerebro, only to be subdued by a woman with white and brown hair.

“The little twerp made it farther than I woulda thought,” he said, scratching a long, sharpened nail against a countertop.

“We got that, right?” a woman asked, stepping closer to the televisions.

“Oh yeah, we got that,” Creed said. 

“Good,” said the woman. “Then you know where you're going. Assemble your team and get what he couldn’t.”

Creed stood up and began to march away when the woman placed a hand on his shoulder. He stopped and leaned towards her without looking at her.

“And, Creed,” she said. “Minimal deaths.”

The man smiled, being sure to display his enlarged canines, knowing he wouldn't be able to keep that promise.


	3. Telegraphing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rogue continues her training but Xavier wants answers on who Gambit is.
> 
> The Xavier Mansion has unexpected visitors.

Anna charged at her attacker, swinging her fist in an awkward arc for Betsy’s face, but Betsy was too quick. She grabbed Anna by the arm and used her own momentum against her, throwing her to the floor. Anna landed on the mat with a thud, a dull pain aching in her shoulder.

“Ow,” Anna groaned as Betsy helped her up. “Ah fail to see how gettin’ my ass handed to me helps me be a better fighter.”

“You're a brawler,” Betsy said. “You lack finesse. Call that thief what you like, but from the videos I’ve seen, he is well-trained.”

“So, what do Ah do?” Anna asked. “Ah can only rely on my strength so much, and who knows how long it'll be till that fades away.”

“I can't make you a perfect fighter right away, but I can make you an average fighter now." She spread her feet and raised her arms into a fighting stance. "This time, don't look at which side you're going to attack. You're telegraphing your moves.”

“Where do Ah look then?”

Betsy stared at Anna, lowering her gaze. “Just look at me. See where I am seeing.”

Anna took a second to catch her breath, feeling flush in the sweats she wore, and then raised her fists. At first, she jabbed at Betsy without committing to a full swing. Betsy's eyes darted from the jab back to Anna without blinking and then saw her step to the left and back again. With another quick jab, Anna followed through with a clean cut from the right, but again Betsy stepped back in time. However, she didn't merely avoid the hit, she caught Anna’s hand again. Anna pulled back before she could be sent tumbling again and tried striking at Betsy with her free hand. Betsy caught it as well and before they knew it was happening, both women were grappling for control, hand-in-hand.

With her enhanced strength, Anna knew she could turn the tide of this fight by merely overpowering Betsy, but the latter had other plans. As her knees began to buckle, the woman fell onto her back, extending her leg into Anna’s stomach, rolling into a backwards somersault and sending Anna to the floor yet again.

Anna picked herself up, shaken but not injured. Something was off, she found as she composed herself, and then realized her gloves had come off in the struggle. She looked to Betsy, who still had them clutched in her own hands.

“Sorry,” Betsy said, offering them back. “We really need to get you a pair that stay on a little better.”

“No kidding,” Anna replied, thinking back to two days before when she grabbed Remy with her bare hand. She hadn’t left her room without them since and tended to over-dress, hence the sweats.

“Everything okay?” Betsy asked, noting the perturbed look on her face.

Slipping her gloves back on, Anna nodded. “Yeah, Ah’m fine. Just still a little shook up from the other night.”

With a sigh and a shake of her head, she said, “Is it...something you want to talk about?”

“Not really,” Anna replied.

“Good. I’m bloody useless when it comes to talking, anyway.” She got back to her spot on the mat. “Again?”

“I’m afraid that will have to wait,” Nova said, walking into the room. Anna noticed Betsy stiffen up, just as Scott and everyone else had done whenever the professor entered the room. “I need to speak with Anna.”

Betsy glanced at her and back at Nova. “Of course. Anna, I’ll catch you later.”

The two of them watched as Betsy left the room, neither speaking nor moving. When they were alone, Nova walked over to the mat and tested her weight on it, barely making an indentation. “You've chosen an excellent tutor. Elizabeth has been studying so she can eventually join my X-Force.”

“What's that?” Anna asked.

“I’ll tell you another time,” she said. “For now, I was hoping to speak with you about the incident the other night with Gambit.”

Anna cast her eyes down and shook her head. “Ah’m sorry, Professor. Ah didn’t mean to touch him.”

“I’m glad you did,” she said, taking the wind out of the rest of Anna’s apology. “You stopped him, which was the most important thing, and you might have some vital information on who we are dealing with. I’ve tried to glean any information from him as I could, but didn’t make it far. I was hoping you would be able to help me fill in the blanks.”

“Okay,” Anna said, with a small shrug. “Want to do that here or…?”

“I was actually hoping you might join me on a journey into the city. I need to run an errand and I'm afraid I will be indisposed for the rest of the day, but thought we could walk and talk. I'll make it worth your time, of course.”

“Of course,” Anna said, unsure what that last sentence meant. “Ah just need a shower and a change of clothes.”

“Please, by all means,” Nova replied. “Meet me in the entryway in, say, half an hour?”

“Okay,” Anna said. And with that, she left.

#

Half an hour was hardly enough time for Anna to be able to shower and put on fresh clothes, but she managed to do just that. She found Nova in the entryway, dressed in a long black coat and holding a black, wide-brimmed hat.

“Shall we?” Nova asked and opened the door.

In the week since her arrival to the mansion, Anna had only ventured outside a handful of times, but each time she immediately fell back into the familiarity of it all: being shoulder-to-shoulder with your fellow pedestrian; the air smelling like a food truck one second and then putrid with exhaust the next; and the ever-present atmosphere of car horns, screeching brakes, and peoples’ small talk.

With Nova, however, the pedestrians were not an issue. Anna watched in awe as the crowd began to part before them, allowing a space of at least two feet on every side of them.

“Driving takes longer than walking anymore,” Nova said. “And it's a lot easier to get people to move out of my way than cars.”

Anna followed closely behind Nova, pulling her hood up despite that day being one of the few where it wasn't raining.

“Humans,” Nova spat, looking at a drunk man as he clambered out of her way. “One would almost pity them if they weren't so prone to hate.”

“Ah’ve met a couple that aren't so bad.”

Nova shot a glare to Anna that quickly melted into a smile. 

“Well, perhaps you just haven’t met enough of them,” she said. “Now, this Gambit. What can you tell me about him?”

It took Anna a moment before she remembered why she was with Nova in the first place. “Well, Ah honestly haven't seen much and what Ah have seen doesn't necessarily make a lotta sense.”

“Let's start with what you've seen, then.”

They crossed the street at an intersection where a traffic jam began to grow as a result of a four car pile-up. There were two police officers trying to direct traffic away while two others spoke to the drivers of the accident, balancing asking them questions with trying to keep them from attacking one another.

“Well,” Anna said. “He's not from here. Ah think he's from down south. Ah haven't seen who he works for, but Ah’ve seen glimpses. It’s hard to tell where he meets her because it’s dark, but she gives him instructions.”

“What kind of instructions?” Nova asked.

Anna thought for a moment. “She just said she wants the mutants in Cerebro.”

“Which ones?”

“All of them.”

Nova thought for a moment. “Interesting. Anything else?”

“Random flashes of things,” she said. “A blond woman. A wall of TVs…”

As her voice trailed off, Anna felt Nova begin to grow frustrated. She looked over and saw the woman’s lips purse.

“Is that all?” she asked.

Anna tried for another moment to conjure something in her head but saw nothing. “Yes.” And then, “Wait--no. There is more. Ah see…”

“Yes…”

“Ah see a boat. Ships, actually.”

The frustrated feeling Anna felt coming from Nova melted away.

“What kind?”

“Sunken ships. A graveyard of them.” This single image of a memory was clear in her mind. She could even smell the brine in the air. An old ferry’s bow pointed up at a 45-degree angle. Behind it, a rusted out fishing vessel sunk down into the murky water, its net crane sticking out like an old crow’s nest. There were other ships in this image, but Anna didn't know what type of ship they were due to lack of knowledge or because they were too far submerged into the water.

Behind the ships, she saw the city--or a part of it at least. It was an industrial area with warehouses and factories sprawling out before her, their chimneys bleeding with a sooty smoke that dirtied the pink sunset in the background, a sunset similar to the one she walked underneath at that moment. 

“So, you must be looking at the city from a ship,” Nova said. “What ship?”

“Ah can't really look around in someone else’s memory,” Anna explained. “This is like seeing a photo for a moment before watching it sink into a fog. But I do see a sign for the dock.”

“What does it say?”

Anna squeezed her eyes and focused on it. It was a metallic rectangle that hung over a parking lot.

“Chiba,” she finally said.

“Interesting. Well, I thank you, Anna. You’ve given me a lot to think about,” Nova said. “I’m afraid I must be going now.”

They had stopped walking and were now standing in front of a glass cube of a building. Anna studied the building for a moment, not seeing any sign or anything that said where they were, and turned back to Nova, who was holding a small stack of luminescent plastic squares, each a different color.

“What's this?” Anna asked.

“This is for your help,” Nova said. “As well as your discretion.”

Anna took the credits and stuffed them into her hoodie pocket.

“We will talk tonight,” Nova promised.

“Ah'll see you tonight, then,” Anna replied.

#

The Danger Room was Betsy’s Happy Place. She trained there not only to better herself but to clear her mind, work out her frustrations, and just be alone. When she couldn’t be there, there was one other place she liked to go where not many thought to look for her: the library.

This library was unlike the one on the second floor with pristine leather tomes that were for decoration more than reading. This was a library in the second sub-basement, just down the hall from the War Room where the X-Men’s old case files were kept. Some of them were papers in manila folders. Some were random memory drives. All had been discarded here, forgotten and left in chaotic piles for someone to sort through.

That someone turned out to be Betsy.

What started off as a curiosity for looking into old files eventually evolved into a need to catalog and preserve them. She stole an old filing cabinet from the library and began with the manila folders, organizing them by chronology.

Next, she consolidated all information of each and every adversary they'd ever met in the field. She could have finished with this particular part of the process rather quickly except she found herself reading every bit of information before she filed it away. Betsy was in the middle of Mystique’s hefty folder of incidents when the door opened, a blast of white light entering with Warren Worthington. For a moment, he truly looked like an angel.

“Well there you are,” Warren said. “I thought I was going to have to enlist Kurt to help me cover more parts of the house to find you.”

Betsy calmly closed the file she was reading and placed it on the table, saying, “And what if I didn't want to be found?”

“Are you hiding from me?” Warren asked.

“No,” Betsy said, placing the file in a stack of similar cases. “I'm just hiding in general. Trying to get away from everyone.”

“Even Neal?”

She shot him a glare. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh come on,” Warren said. “I've just noticed you're spending a lot of time with him and less with your actual boyfriend.”

Betsy’s expression turned sour. “I can’t even begin to explain how poorly you’re misreading that. He's my DR partner for the month.”

“Yeah, well you seem to run into each other outside of the Danger Room a lot,” he said. He crossed his arms and leaned against the door, showing no sign of leaving without an explanation.

“I’m just helping him with some…” Betsy dropped the book onto the table, its impact banging like a gunshot. “You know what? I'm really just not in the mood for this right now.”

“Yeah? When will you--”

His voice was cut off as the room glowed pink suddenly. Behind them, an ovular, white and pink circle appeared in the air and six figures stepped out. Before Warren or Betsy could act, one of the figures sent a pair of white balls of energy through the air, striking them both in the chest simultaneously. They flew back and struck the wall, unconscious before they hit the floor.

“I thought you said this area would be clear,” a blonde woman said.

“Guess I was wrong, Bella,” Creed said. “Now, let's get to work.”

“Sage, you're with me,” Bella said.

With a snarl, Creed said, “Like hell she is. We need her for Cerebro, not to rescue your boy toy.”

Bella glared at Creed, but knew they didn't have time to quarrel over this. “Fine. Blockbuster, Scrambler on me. You can have Blink and Scalphunter.”

As they departed from the room, Creed grabbed Bella by her arm. “Get him and get back by the time we leave. Otherwise, you’re on your own.”

#

Dr. Cecelia Reyes stood in the med bay of the Xavier Mansion between her two patients: Logan and Remy. Neither was conscious and she didn’t know if either would be conscious again. Logan’s healing factor did most of the work for her but she had never seen him out for this long. Every test she ran on the man had come out fine. His blood contained traces of adamantium, but that had always been there due to his skeleton.

Remy was another story. Anna’s powers were a completely new element that Reyes had no prior knowledge of, let alone how to cure it. She’d heard rumors of some of the others who had met Remy’s fate at Anna’s hands, but didn’t know anything concrete. 

The door to the room opened and in stepped Forge holding a box made of plastic and glass that looked like a TV or a microwave at first.

“Dr. Reyes,” he said. “How are the patients?”

“As good as they can be,” she replied.

“I brought you a gift,” Forge said with a smile. He held up the box for a moment before setting it on a counter next to the sink. “You mentioned needing a CT scanner smaller than, well, the entire room, so I made one.”

Reyes walked over to the box and opened it. Inside was a canister that was connected to a chord with a computer input.

“Just press the red button and thousands of microbial bots will be released and they’ll scan the subject and feed the results to your computer.”

Reyes studied it for a moment and shook her head. “This will work?”

“I hope so. If not, it will cook them from the inside like a microwave.” Forge smiled when he noticed Reyes’s expression. “Only kidding. It’ll work.”

She placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “You’re doing God’s work, my friend.”

Before Forge could reply, the door opened yet again. Neither Forge nor Reyes recognized any of the three people who stood before them.

“Excuse me…” Forge began, but the big man sauntered in and delivered a punch, sending him to the floor. 

“No!” Reyes said, instinctively activating her mutant ability. Blockbuster tried to punch her as well, but his hand was stopped by a reddish shield that surrounded her.

A tingling sensation came over Reyes and the shield soon evaporated. The next moment, Blockbuster smiled and grabbed for her throat, pinning her against the wall. Next to him, a scrawny man with greasy brown hair smiled.

“What the hell do you want?” Reyes gasped out.

Bella Donna walked to Remy. “Is he alive?”

Reyes nodded, unable to speak.

“Good,” the woman said. “Blockbuster, get him and let’s go.”

#

Kitty was on her way to the kitchen to steal an afternoon snack when she found Anna sitting in the dining room by herself, fork in hand as she stirred at a bowl of noodles listlessly. She singled out a single piece of carrot, prodding it while still deep in thought.

“Everything okay?” Kitty asked, causing Anna to jump. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

“You’re okay,” Anna replied. “Ah’m just kinda ‘off’ right now.”

Kitty took a seat across from Anna. “How did your trek with the professor go?”

“It was fine,” Anna said and then shook her head. “Actually, it was just weird. Ah’ve been tryin’ to figure her out now since Ah got here and Ah’m not havin’ any luck. Is she a professor? Is she a foster mom? Is she our boss? Ah just can’t crack her.”

With a smile, Kitty said, “We’ve all been trying to ‘crack’ her since we arrived, but no one’s had any luck.”

Anna impaled the carrot piece with her fork and ate it. “What do you think of her?”

Kitty took her time in saying anything. She had her thoughts and many of them wanted to bubble to the surface, but few were any she was ready to vocalize.

“Being an heiress of a place like this, I think she probably had a strange childhood, which could explain any of her...quirks.” She paused to consider if there was anything else to say. “But I think she means well.”

Anna had to stop herself from letting loose a harsh response. “What's her endgame in all this? That's what escapes me.”

“Maybe…” Kitty began and then frowned, when Piotr came up to the table.

“Have you seen Warren?” he asked. “We were due in the Danger Room ten minutes ago.”

“He was looking for Betsy the last I checked,” Kitty said. “Maybe he’s already down there. Have you tried calling down there with the comm link?”

He nodded. “Nothing.”

Kitty frowned. “Not even anything from Reyes?”

He shook his head.

“Maybe it’s the escapee we have down there, but this doesn’t feel right,” Kitty replied. 

“Couldn’t hurt to check it out,” Anna said.

The trio headed for the elevator, nerves slowly creeping up on them. As they entered, Piotr transformed into his metallic state.

“Where’s Jean and everybody else?” Anna asked.

Kitty frowned. “She's on a recon mission with Scott, Kurt, and Deathbird. They’re not supposed to be back until this evening.”

“Great,” Anna replied.

The elevator doors opened and at first it seemed like nothing was wrong. The hallways were empty and nothing could be heard save for the steady hum of the generators powering everything. And then the med bay doors opened and out stepped a large man carrying Remy.

“Hey,” Kitty said. “Stop!”

The man casually stopped and looked back into the med bay where two others, a man and a woman, stepped out. 

“I don’t know who you are,” Kitty said. “But he’s ours.”

“Au contraire. He’s with us,” Bella said. “Now, are you gonna let us leave with him or is this gonna have to be unpleasant?”

For a moment, Kitty stood there, unsure what to say.

Piotr stepped forward. “Release him and leave now. Final offer.”

“No,” Blockbuster said.

“Then I am sorry for what I must do,” he said. He walked towards Blockbuster, who set Remy down with Bella and Scrambler.

The two goliaths charged at one another, meeting in the middle of the hallway. With his arm around Blockbuster’s neck, Piotr took his other hand as they grappled with one another, each trying to gain the upper hand. They continued in this deadly dance as their respective teammates looked on in astonishment until Anna broke the silence.

“Go,” she said to Kitty. “If they're here, they're probably here for Cerebro.”

“Cerebro?” Kitty asked.

“Yes,” Anna replied, remembering the instructions Remy was given. “Ah can take these two.”

With a nod, Kitty ran forward, phasing into the wall ahead of them. This sudden burst seemed to sober Bella and Scrambler as they got into their battle stances.

Anna rushed forward, dodging an energy orb that was thrown her way and leaped into flight, fists forward. Bella saved another orb for the last second, throwing it when Anna would be unable to dodge it. The orb hit her in the shoulder, breaking her flight and throwing her against the wall.

“Alright, sugah,” she said. She picked herself up and threw her gloves on the ground. “Let's do this the hard way.”

Staring into her opponent’s eyes, Anna jumped forward, jabbing at Bella with her left hand before following through with a full punch from the right. She connected with the woman’s cheek, driving her to her knees, but the woman was still conscious. Anna looked at her hands and, for a moment, thought that she might just be able to touch people. And then she saw Colossus, his metallic form giving way to fleshl, and then to Scrambler, who wore a wicked smile.

“My friend here negates any powers,” Bella said. 

Blockbuster grabbed Piotr, who was distracted for a moment by this revelation and threw him down the hall.

Anna sighed and put up her fists. “Shit.”

#

Kitty phased through the wall into the med bay, where he found Reyes on her knees, her hands bound behind her back with a zip tie. Forge was on the floor, still unconscious. Kitty went down on her knee and slipped the tie off from the doctor’s hands by phasing it through her.

Reyes pulled the gag from her lips. “They're after Cerebro.”

“I know,” Kitty said. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine,” she replied, rushing over to Forge. She placed her index finger on the man’s wrist and leaned over his mouth. “He’s breathing. I’ll take care of it. Just go.”

Without another word, Kitty stood and phased through the next wall. Which was thick and mostly a dark space of nothing. Claustrophobia gripped at Kitty, but she pushed through it, saving her breath, until she came through the other side. 

The room Kitty found herself in now was Cerebro, where she stumbled upon Creed and Scalphunter flanking Sage, who sat in the chair, the helmet upon her head. Her eyes were squeezed shut in deep concentration as her right arm, a cyber-prosthetic, motioned in the air. Her fingertips glowed red as she typed and swiped away information she could only see. 

Creed whipped his head around to Kitty almost as soon as she entered. “Thought I smelled some fresh meat,” he said.

Scalphunter drew an SMG and fired it at Kitty in a short burst. Each bullet went through her since she activated her phasing powers as soon as Creed saw her. 

“You idiot,” Creed said, swiping at the gun. “You’ll hit the servers.”

Even though Kitty wasn't hurt, she knew she couldn't keep her incorporeal form long enough to do anything without coming to harm, so she phased out of the room while they were distracted.

She needed help.

#

The floor cracked where Piotr hit it. Even in his depowered state, he was still a big man, so the sheer force of having his body hit the same spot in the tile caused it to crater after being impacted so many times. The pain he felt now was unlike anything he had felt in a long time. Still, he picked himself up and wiped the blood from his face.

Blockbuster came at him, swinging wide and slow. Piotr dodged the swing easily and hit him in the stomach with a pair of quick punches. Blockbuster stepped back, catching his breath as Piotr realized his opponent was growing tired. Unfortunately, so was he.

Anna wasn’t making much progress either. Realizing Scrambler needed to be taken out, she tried everything she could to get to him, but Bella was relentless. The whole time, Bella threw one orb after another, making it so Anna was on the defensive with every move. Any opening she saw was quickly gone and she was rolling on the floor, trying not to get hit with any of the energy being thrown at her. Without her powers, Anna was barely able to keep up with Bella, but her reflexes were still just quick enough to avoid getting hit.

After failing to hit her with another volley of orbs, Bella let out a frustrated scream and came at Anna, fists clenched. Anna threw a punch from the right, but she stepped back with ease, avoiding it, and grabbed her arm. She pulled Anna forward and used her free hand to send her face straight into the wall. Anna saw only white and felt her nose crash against the hard surface, not breaking it but making it bleed and inflaming her sinuses. When Anna tried to recover, she saw Bella crouch low and swing her leg around, sweeping Anna off her feet and onto the floor with a crash.

“Ready to give up yet?” Bella asked.

Even though she wanted nothing more than to just give up, she didn’t. Anna glanced at Piotr, who kept picking himself up even though Blockbuster was obviously winning. With a pair of fists the size of bowling balls, Blockbuster hammered down on Piotr’s shoulders, crushing him to the floor. In retaliation, he got up and speared himself into Blockbuster’s abdomen, tackling him to the ground. He wasn’t done yet.

With one deep breath, Anna stood and raised her fists one more time. A snide smile crept across Bella’s face as she waited for her enemy to make her move. Anna jabbed twice and followed through with an uppercut, which Bella was able to dodge easily and then responded with a quick chop down to Anna’s neck. A bolt of pain ran through her up into her head where she lost vision in her left eye for a moment.

Anna quickly recovered and faced Bella again. This time, she tried something new. She looked to the left and began to step in that direction. As Bella began to respond to her ‘telegraph’, Anna launched herself forward and drove a hard punch right across the woman’s cheek. Bella stumbled back, taking a moment to register what had happened. 

“Not bad, trailer trash,” she said. And then her eyes drifted behind Anna and she smiled.

Before Anna could turn to see what she was looking at, she felt the searing hot sting of claws gliding along her back and she dropped to the ground in pain.

“What the hell is going on here?” Creed demanded.

Scalphunter stepped over Anna, SMG raised and aimed it at Piotr, who was still struggling on the floor with Blockbuster. There seemed to be no way that the man could get a shot off without hitting his teammate, but maybe he didn’t care. Anna crawled towards the man, the cuts in her smarting and stinging with every inch she moved. She was only inches away from him when she felt a foot on her back, causing her to coil in pain.

Blam.

Anna looked and watched as Piotr slumped down onto Blockbuster, who pushed him off his body like he was a blanket.

Even helpless and bleeding out, Piotr never stopped fighting. He thrashed and picked himself up but fell again. He attempted to use the wall to aid him but slid down it as Creed and Blockbuster watched with bemused smiles. Piotr Rasputin gave one final lunge at Blockbuster, who stepped to the side, and fell to the floor one last time.

And then he didn’t have to fight any longer.

Blockbuster stared at the man and then turned to Scalphunter. “I wasn’t done with him.”

“We have a schedule to keep,” his teammate replied.

“Sage,” Bella said, motioning to Remy. “Let’s do this. We don’t have much time.”

The woman walked over to Remy and knelt over him. “I don’t know if this will work.”

“Just do it,” Creed said. He sniffed the air. “There’s something coming.”

Sage placed her hands, one of pale flesh and one of metal, onto the man’s temples and closed her eyes as she focused. There was silence for a moment and then white light peaked from her eyelids before traveling down her hands and into Remy’s head. The man awoke with a gasp and looked around him before settling on Bella Donna.

“Bella? Dat you?” he asked and then saw Piotr on the floor. “What did you do?”

Before she could answer, Kitty appeared at the wall with a woman made of metal. This woman’s arm was in the shape of a cannon and she shot at Bella with a blue ball of plasma. The force sent her to the wall before she fell to the floor dazed.

“The hell?” Creed said.

Scalphunter aimed his gun at her and fired, but the shots ricocheted from her. She lunged at him next and swiped at his gun, cleaving it into two pieces and then kicked him back against the wall. Creed attacked her from the side, using his claws to slash at her, but she blocked them with ease. Blockbuster joined, using his strength to pry her arms back.

While Creed’s team attacked the woman, Kitty ran to Anna and helped her to her feet.

“Let’s go,” she said.

“What about her?” Anna asked.

“Danger?” she asked. “She’ll be okay...I think.”

The robotic woman was quickly being overwhelmed. Blockbuster had her wrapped in his arms as Creed went for the head, meaning to pull it straight off of her shoulders.

A figure darted past Anna and Kitty, and tackled Creed to the ground. Anna watched as a half-naked man with three metallic blades protruding from each hand slashed at Creed.

“I thought you were supposed to be in a coma,” Creed said, clawing at the man in an almost animalistic way.

The man growled and stabbed Creed in the stomach, but the man seemed unperturbed. “Your stink woke me.”

“Logan?” Kitty said.

Blockbuster was the one to answer, though, in a yelp when he released his grip on Danger. As he slumped down to the floor, she arose from him like a bloodsoaked Venus with metallic spikes protruding from her back.

“That’s it. It’s time to leave,” Creed said, kicking Logan back. He brought his finger to his earpiece. “Blink, get us outta here.”

Anna saw movement from Scalphunter as he pulled a new gun from his back. This one was short, with a very wide barrel: a grenade launcher. He took aim at Logan and shot it with a poomph, sending the man flying back in a small explosion that caused the earth to shake and filled the room with smoke.

The heat of the blast pushed Anna back against Kitty and when she recovered, her lungs burned and her eyes smarted from the smoke in the room. She helped Kitty to her feet, who said something that she couldn’t understand over the ringing in her ears. In the middle of it all, she saw a pink portal open up and Scalphunter stepped through first.

“What about Bella?” Scrambler asked as the smoke began to clear.

“I’m fine,” she said, picking herself up off the floor. She turned to Remy and said, “C’mon, chere. It’s time to go!”

Remy wasn’t listening, though. He knelt over Piotr, his hands on the man’s chest, pumping up and down in a desperate attempt to resuscitate him. 

He turned to them, rage filling his face and said, “Then go.”

Creed growled in disgust and motioned for his team to go. As they stepped through the portal, Danger was on their heels, but it closed before she could go through. Without a second thought, she turned and went to Piotr. Shoving Remy away, she scanned Piotr with a beam of blue light that came from her eyes.

Kitty and Anna ran over to him as well. Kitty fell to the floor, clutching his head in her hands as she looked to the robotic woman for an answer that she already knew.

“Piotr Rasputin,” the Danger said. “Deceased.” She turned to Remy and grabbed him by the wrists.

“Hey,” Remy said, struggling with no success. “Lemme go.”

“Remy LeBeau,” she said. “Detained. Kitty Pryde.”

Kitty let out a sob, tears rolling down her eyes as she was scanned.

“Unharmed,” she said and then did the same to Anna. “Anna Marie Adler. You require medical attention.”

Even though tears still ran down her eyes, Kitty’s expression changed to one of confusion and fear. Anna wanted to explain, but the girl didn’t want to hear it. Even if the girl knew the full story, she wouldn’t understand.

“Adler?” she finally choked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending is kind of abrupt, especially with no "Epilogue" like I've been putting in. I tried to work with the pacing but was starting to drive myself crazy and decided to just walk away from it. Hopefully it's not too jarring


	4. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the aftermath of an attack inside the X-Mansion, the X-Men want answers.

Two men sat in a car that was issued to them by the Mutant Security Enforcers (MSE for short). They flew over the congested streets of those who did not have access to these cars and often looked up at them with a mixture of envy and hate. It wasn’t the fault of these two MSE agents that civilians couldn’t get the proper training to obtain a license for one of these cars, but they were hated all the same. Them being mutants didn’t help.

They hovered down into one of the alleyways near the Xavier Mansion where there were still scars and metal shards from where a dumpster had exploded a week earlier. As they got out of the car, the man in the passenger seat stretched his arms as he exited while his partner merely adjusted his crimson sunglasses.

They walked out of the alleyway and up the steps of the mansion. Ringing the doorbell, the men waited as onlookers stared at them distrustfully, some even eyeing their sidearms with morbid fascination. After a few seconds, the door opened and Scott Summers stared back at them.

“Alex?” he said.

“What's up big brother?” Alex Summers said.

With a smile, Scott grabbed his brother with a big hug, nearly tackling him onto the sidewalk.

“Lucas,” a voice said from inside. It was Betsy, sporting a cast and a smile for an old acquaintance.

“Hey, Bets,” Lucas Bishop said. He gestured at her cast. “How’s the arm?”

“Getting better,” she said and then frowned. “Could be worse.”

“I'm really sorry to hear about Piotr,” Alex said. “And Warren, how is he?”

“The blast seemed to hurt him more, but he’s okay.”

“So,” Scott said. “It's great to see the both of you, but I’m assuming this isn’t a friendly drop-in.”

Bishop sighed and took his sunglasses off. “We need to speak to Xavier about all of this. People are asking questions.”

#

Nova’s office sat at the end of the second floor’s Eastern Wing. It was one of the few rooms still in use, leaving a series of empty offices, their old occupants long-forgotten. Kitty Pryde became conscious of this fact as she walked on, past their, trying to remember exactly why they were empty.

When she got to Nova’s office, Kitty found the door closed and heard muffled voices from inside. Just as she raised her hand to knock, the door swung open and out walked Deathbird. She pushed past Kitty without a response, her wings brushing Kitty’s shoulder.

Nova was close behind, having walked the Shi’ar Princess to the door. “Katherine,” she said. “What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping to talk to you about last Thursday,” Kitty replied. “Specifically about someone involved.”

Nova shook her head. “I'm afraid it will have to wait until later. I am being summoned downstairs because of a couple guests who just arrived.”

Nova began to walk away and Kitty almost let her. But instead she ran up so she was in front of Nova and walked backwards as she said, “Anna. Her full name is Anna Maria Adler. Is she the daughter of Irene Adler and Raven Darkholme?”

With a sigh, Nova said, “Adopted daughter. But yes.”

“And you’ve been aware of this since she came here?”

“Yes.”

As they got to the stairs, Kitty turned back around to keep from falling and walked side-by-side with Nova. They could hear the voices of her guests in the background, so Kitty knew her time with the woman was almost up.

“You trust her?” she finally asked.

“Completely,” Nova said.

“What if she’s a spy for Adler?” she whispered.

Stopping, Nova let out a frustrated huff and faced Kitty. “She’s not. If she was, I would know. You don’t doubt my abilities as a telepath or the leader of this school, do you?”

The sudden coldness Kitty received from the professor’s stare caused her to shrink back slightly. She shook her head. “No.”

“Good,” she said and continued down the stairs. As she got to the bottom, her face grew into a smile. “Lucas, Alex, welcome. Please, join me in my office, will you?”

#

The past few days seemed to happen in a foggy kind of slow motion to Anna. She remembered getting her cuts patched up, Piotr’s funeral, and discussions about what to do with their prisoner, but the memories were hazy and the details had a dream-like tint to them. The only thing Anna truly became cognisant of was the collective narrowing of eyes she felt on her whenever she entered a room.

Kitty knew the details of Anna’s parentage and now everyone knew. They knew she was raised by Raven Darkholme, A.K.A. Mystique, and her partner Irene Adler, A.K.A. Destiny, two of the many enemies of the X-Men. What they didn’t know was how they were very good parents to her at first—better, even, than Anna’s biological parents. Or how their intentions were only ever to benefit mutantkind. 

As Anna tried to tell herself that, however, she remembered the old adage about good intentions. In addition to these good intentions, Anna also reminded herself that there were other things that they didn’t know. Like the Road to Hell she traveled each day with Raven and Irene in their pursuit to help mutants and the people—mutant and human alike—that were hurt as a direct result.

They also didn’t know (and would never know, if Anna could help it) of the final act that drove her away from her parents, the same women she’d traveled with for so many years and grown to love.

These things weighed on her mind, she suspected, because she was now seeing more of Remy’s past flashing back to her in dreams and random flashes during the day. And there were some similarities between his story and her own.

These thoughts seeped into Anna’s mind like a boat taking on too much water this morning as she returned to the mansion from a walk. The tension in the air was unbearable for her that day, so she decided to journey out and catch a breath of not-so-fresh air. There was a secondhand store a couple blocks away where she found a pair of leather gloves that fit to her hands almost perfectly, so she bought them with some of the money Nova had given her as well as a couple of weathered Grisham paperbacks. Treating herself helped take away some of the angst she felt that morning, but as she walked up to the mansion, she spied a car in the alley with the MSE initials.

The letters stopped her dead in her tracks, chilling the blood in her veins. A man behind Anna ran into her when she stopped so abruptly and cursed her as he walked around, but she paid no mind to him. It being a day of memories, she began to think of her brushes with the MSE and the narrow escapes they made, escapes that almost didn’t happen if Irene hadn’t been there to guide them with her precognitive powers.

Raven thought of them as traitorous to their own species and at times Anna caught herself thinking the same, even though she knew better. Surely, there were mutants in the MSE who probably hated their own kind, but she also wanted to believe that there were some who thought they were actually helping. After all, that’s what her parents believed they themselves were doing.

Anna wanted to believe that’s what the case was now; that whoever was here from the MSE was to help. Surely, Kitty wouldn’t have called them for her. Would she?

After being bumped into a third time, Anna took a deep breath and walked up the steps to the door. When she opened it, instead of being faced with MSE agents ready to detain her, she found Logan rounding the corner from the kitchen carrying a six-pack of beer with two missing already.

“You’re the new one, right?” he said, stopping.

“Uh, yeah,” she said. “Anna.”

“Logan,” he said and held up his six-pack. “Beer?”

“Uh, it’s only elev—”

But he was already tossing one to her, which she barely caught. “Welcome to the team,” he said and walked to the living room.

So, maybe the MSE were just here for the incident with Remy and his team, after all.

Anna walked to the kitchen to either dump the beer or put it back in the fridge. When she opened the door, she found Jubilee and Bobby making sandwiches and arguing about something, their voices trailing off when they saw her. She ignored them and proceeded to the fridge where she put the can on a random shelf. As she turned to leave, she found Jubilee standing behind her.

“Uh, hi,” Anna said.

“Your mom’s Mystique, right?” she asked.

“Jubilee,” Bobby said, drawing out the ‘ee’ of her name. His eyes bulged as he stared at her.

“Yup,” Anna replied.

“That’s awesome,” she replied, monotone. “Is it true she once broke into the White House by shapeshifting into the president?”

Anna looked to Bobby, waiting for him to try and stop the girl from asking the question, but he stared at Anna, waiting for her response.

“It was the VP, actually” Anna said. “But yeah.”

“How did she get past the Stark security systems in place?” Bobby asked. “I’ve heard the Secret Service has nothing to do anymore because the security there is so advanced.” 

“Well, my other mom…”

“Destiny,” Jubilee jumped in.

“...has precognitive abilities, so they were able to plan it in a way that Mystique was able to swap out with him when he went to the bathroom.”

A silence came over the room as Jubilee and Bobby looked to one another and then they both burst into a fit of laughter. When they recovered, Anna began to leave but Jubilee jumped in front of her.

“Wait,” she said. “Do you have any more stories?”

“Tons,” Anna said. “But not many of them are as funny as the last one.”

“That’s okay,” Jubilee said. “Can we hear a couple of ‘em anyways?”

Anna raised an eyebrow and leaned back against the refrigerator, holding her paperbacks in her crossed arms. “Why are you so interested in my parents?”

Jubilee looked at her as if she had just spoken gibberish. “They’re cool! They’re, like, the punk-rock rebels of mutants.”

“Some might call them terrorists.”

They all turned to see Neal Shaara standing in the doorway. He was dressed in a polo and a pair of slacks and was holding an empty bowl. The look on his face was somber.

“My father, for example, would. He was the chief of police back in my hometown, Kolkata. It’s a beautiful city, but it’s seen its share of trouble in the last 20 years or so.” He went over to the sink and turned it on, grabbing the sponge next to the faucet. He squeezed dish soap directly onto the bowl and began to scrub it. “I don’t know if you know this, but India was one of the first countries to require mutant registration. Because of this, it was also one of the first cities to experience the wide-spread rallies and protests, which left my father to deal with.

“In the middle of these protests, back in August, ten years ago, my father received an anonymous tip that a bomb was planted on Vidyasagar Setu, a bridge that connects Kolkata with Howrah. The Indian President, Manish Haqq, was set to cross that bridge on a tour to try to bring unity to the country. His schedule was not released to the public ahead of time, nor was his route. It was as if someone just knew exactly when and where he would be.”

Neal finished scrubbing the bowl, so he rinsed it and took a towel to dry it off with. In the meantime, the other three in the room did not move an inch. They just stood there, waiting for him to finish the story even though Anna knew how it would end.

“My father and his best people went to the bridge as the president’s convoy made its way over it. But he was too late. Or maybe just on time, depending on how you see it. The bomb went off and the bridge collapsed, taking the president and everyone else down into the Hooghly River. A day later, it was revealed Mystique and Destiny’s Brotherhood were behind the attack.”

Walking over to the counter near Anna, Neal opened a cabinet and put the bowl back. He turned to Jubilee, his face stoney but betraying a hint of pent-up rage.

“So, yes, maybe they are ‘punk rockers’ to some,” he said and then turned to Anna. “But to others, they are terrorists and will always remain that way.”

#

Remy had been conscious for a week now and was starting to regret not leaving with Bella and the rest of the Marauders. During his time, he stayed in a room that served a dual purpose as his cell and an interrogation chamber. It was a panic room that Forge retrofitted into a cell at Nova’s request since it looked like he would be a more permanent resident. There was a cot as well as a toilet but otherwise nothing. Not even a window. Just concrete on every surface. 

He sat at a picnic table they had brought down there for him to be interrogated from. It was plastic and stained with years of wear and spilled food.

Jean Grey sat across from him with Kurt Wagner standing off to the side. Danger guarded the door, her eyes fixated the Remy. The room was silent as Jean furrowed her brow, trying her hardest to dig into this man’s thoughts but having no luck.

“So who gave you this mental shield?” she asked, putting a hand to her temple, where her inhibitor was. Her head began to ache around that spot from putting so much stress on her telepathy.

“My employer,” Remy replied.

“Who is…”

They waited for a response, but none came. Kurt continued the interrogation. “Why do you want the files in Cerebro?”

“Would you believe me if I told you I didn't know?” he said.

Jean placed a finger at her temple.

“No.”

“Well it's the truth,” he replied.

A yawn came over Remy and he looked lazily from Kurt to Jean. He had been in an interrogation before, but this was the first time he had ever been bored by one. These two weren’t torturers. They weren't killers. They were heroes. 

But then his gaze wandered over to Danger. She stared at him, expressionless through a pair of yellow eyes. She was a killer.

“So how did you get in?” Kurt asked.

“Well, I found this place because of my resistance to telepathy,” he said. “They found the place because…” He stopped and frowned. To be honest, it wasn’t something he had given a lot of thought to. “Blink, the pink femme, has the ability to open portals to teleport people in, but she has to have been to the place before...or at least seen it.”

Before anyone could respond, Danger walked over to Remy’s side of the table and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt.

“Hey,” he said, protesting as he was hauled to the wall.

“Danger,” Jean said, standing up. “Stand down.”

The robotic woman held Remy at the wall, staring into his eyes. Both Kurt and Jean demanded that she release their prisoner, but she didn’t. Not for a few seconds at least. When she did, she turned back to Jean and Kurt. “There are cybernetic implants in his eyes.”

“What?” Remy said, unconsciously reaching towards his eyes. He looked to Jean and Kurt, who said nothing. They just stared, taking in this new information.

“I detected a signal coming from him, but I thought it was his power inhibitor at first. However, it seems that his eyes are feeding all of this information to his employer,” Danger said. There was the sound of metal sliding against metal as her hand transformed into a pair of long syringes. “Would you like me to extract his eyes?”

“No!” everyone said at once.

No one moved or said a thing as they all considered their next actions, knowing they were now being watched. Jean turned to Kurt and, using her telepathy, said, “Get Forge.”

Kurt nodded and disappeared in a puff of black and purple, leaving the lingering scent of sulfur. While he was gone, Remy and Jean sat in silence, the latter feeling a new kind of discomfort from the former’s gaze.

“So,” Jean said. “Them appearing must have been Plan B.”

Remy’s eyes fell at the thought. “S’pose so.”

“Why did you stay?” Jean asked. “According to Danger and reports from other witnesses, you were trying to revive Colossus.”

“I ain’t a killer,” Remy said with the fervor of someone who wasn’t convinced he was. “Creed and the rest wanted to come in and attack as Plan A but I knew there would be a whole lotta killin’ and I didn’t want that, no matter the paycheck. I tried to warn you…”

“Why?” Jean asked. Her tone was bitter now.

“I ran into one of your old friends a few years back,” he said. “She seemed like a good person and spoke highly of a couple of her friends back at the Xavier Institute. Didn’t seem too fond of Xavier, though.”

Leaning forward, the woman said, “Friend?”

Before Remy could reply, Nightcrawler teleported back into the room with Forge, a satchel of tools slung over his shoulder

“I hear we have a surveillance problem,” he said.

“Indeed we do,” Jean replied and stood up from the table. “I’ll leave you to it. Remy, we’ll continue this discussion another time.”

“I look forward to it,” he said with a cocky smile.

As Jean left the room, Danger followed and caught her by the arm as soon as the door left behind them. Jean, not accustomed to Danger’s strong grip, thought for a moment that she was going to attack, but instead the woman said with her artificial voice, “I have tracked the signal.”

“Coming from Gambit’s eyes?”

Danger nodded.

“Well,” Jean said. “Let’s go tell the professor.”

#

The office Bishop and Alex found themselves in was one they had been in many times, but it never felt comfortable. It was larger than either of their apartments and everything from the chairs to the glass cases displaying different antiquities of the X-Men’s past looked either expensive or fragile. Because of this, Bishop chose to stay standing when Nova offered him a seat and instead looked at an item in a display case near the windows. It was a dagger, probably Shi’ar based on the wicked curve of the blade as well as the feathers that were carved into the hilt.

“So, Piotr’s family has been notified of his death?” Alex asked. He was sitting in a chair that seemed to creak at each miniscule movement he made.

Nova nodded. “Of course. His body is being sent back to them for burial as we speak, with Ilyana accompanying it and Xian accompanying her for support.”

“What about Blockbuster?” Bishop asked.

“Who?”

The man turned around and looked at her. “Michael Baer. Blockbuster. According to one of your students, Blockbuster was also slain during the attack. Where is his body?”

Nova shook her head. “I do not know. Perhaps the Marauders took it with them when they escaped.”

Bishop walked up to the desk and leaned down on it, getting to Nova’s level. “You expect me to believe that? What about this Remy LeBeau? I heard he didn’t escape. Are you keeping him somewhere?”

“Listen,” Alex said, trying to cut the tension in the room. “We’ve done a lot to help the Xavier Institute stay under the radar. As far as the American Government is concerned, this place is a twenty-story office building for Advanced Idea Mechanics. But we have a real hard time getting people to cooperate with us in general because of who we represent. All we are asking from you is a little cooperation since we have been able to keep you and your dream away from those in the federal government that would want to inhibit you.”

Nova thought for a moment, staring at Alex. “You work for the government, the same government that requires all mutants to register to keep an eye on us. So tell me, Agents Bishop and Summers, can you really blame anyone for not wanting to cooperate with you?”

“You had a break-in,” Bishop said. “Piotr Rasputin is dead, this Blockbuster is dead, and one of your students—the minors, I should remind you—could have gotten harmed, as well. We have a lot of pull with the MSE, but this can’t just be swept under the rug.”

With a sigh, Nova said, “If you want Baer’s body, you can have it. But I don’t know anything about LeBeau. As far as I know, he made it out of here with the rest of his ilk.”

Bishop pushed himself from the desk, making it move the slightest bit. He walked back to the case and stared back at the dagger, wondering how it even came into this woman’s possession in the first place.

“We can work with that,” Alex eventually said. He turned to his partner. “As far as I’m concerned, all that’s left is to make an official report.”

“Which I will get to you by the end of the day,” Nova replied.

“Much appreciated,” Alex said.

The three of them left the office then in silence. Alex attempted to make conversation, but Nova, whose mind seemed to be elsewhere, gave pithy responses that did nothing to lengthen the conversation. As they made their way down the steps and to the door, Bishop nearly ran into a distracted Anna, who was making her way from the kitchen.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, coming to a halt.

“It’s okay,” Anna said and then straightened when she saw the man.

“Lucas Bishop, Alex Summers, this is Anna Marie Guthrie,” Nova said.

“Guthrie, huh?” he said, looking her over. Anna felt her stomach in her throat and prepared herself to either have to fight the man or leave as soon as she could. “I always forget how big Sam’s family is.”

“Ah lose track myself sometimes,” Anna replied.

Bishop put his glasses back on and gestured to his partner. “Well, we should get going,” he said and turned to Nova. “I’ll be in touch about that report.”

Alex turned to Nova as his partner went out the door. “Tell Scotty ‘Bye’ for me, will you?”

“Of course,” she replied. As the two men departed, Anna turned to leave, but Nova grabbed her by the forearm. “Anna, I was hoping I could ask you a favor.” When she didn’t reply, the woman continued. “I want you to go on a mission.”

“A mission? Where?”

“I just received word that we've located the base of these Marauders and I would like you to go with the rest of the team. Without Piotr, we are in need of a powerhouse like you.”

Unsure how to respond, Anna stood there for a moment, considering her options as if she had many. When she first came here, she merely hoped she would be able to gain control of her powers. She didn’t want to become another soldier for someone else’s cause, especially if she was going to be a part of a team that potentially didn’t trust her.

“Did the MSE tell you?” Anna asked, confused.

“No,” Nova said and tapped her forehead. “Jean got word to me.”

“Okay,” she finally responded.

“Excellent,” Nova said. She began to walk back up the stairs. “The rest of the team is down in the first sub-basement, waiting for you. They’ll have your suit ready for you when you get down there.”

#

The suit was made of a very flexible fabric that, as Jean explained in the locker room, would cushion a blow, but wasn't bulletproof. They were able to manipulate the particles of the fabric to change everything from density to the color, which they did. Their uniforms were mostly the same in their style and cut: primarily black with highlights of color on the X on the right side of their chest as well as the shoulders and belt. It seemed everyone had their own color scheme, too. Jean in green and yellow, Scott in blue and yellow, Kurt in blue and red, Deathbird in purple, Bobby in a light blue, and James in blue and red with the sleeves torn off. Anna herself had dark green and white.

“I hope the color is okay,” Jean said. “Usually you can pick your own but we had a time constraint.”

“It's okay,” Anna said. “Ah like it.”

Still, the suit was very form-fitting, so Anna grabbed her jacket on the way out.

The thing that Anna marveled at the most was the jet she sat in now, capable of traveling at speeds that most humans didn't know was possible. Due to the short distance to their objective, this Blackwing now flew at a relatively slow speed, but this was because the X-Men were taking advantage of the jet’s other feature: stealth.

Virtually undetectable to any form of defense, Forge hovered the jet over Staten Island, where a series of rusting boats stuck up out of the water at different angles. The ship they were directly over was a freight carrier that went by the name ‘Deroin’. It was a hundred yards long, with a few of the cargo containers still tethered to it.

“This is it, team,” Scott said. “According to our intel, the Marauders are directly below us. Kurt, your responsibility is, perhaps, the most important: subduing Scrambler. Everyone else pair off and take down the others. Any questions?” No one said a word. “Okay, let's do this for Piotr.”

And with that, Kurt teleported them all to the surface of the ship, where they were quick to find the door, even though it was locked. Scott blasted it with his eye beam and Anna ripped it open.

One-by-one, they ran down the steps, waiting for an alarm to go off, but didn't hear anything but the tapping of their own feet. The inside was pristine compared to the rusted exterior. Halogen lights illuminated their way as they continued in a spread-out formation. Each level they explored, they found state-of-the-art technology outfitting the old, obsolete computers and radios that once ran this ship. 

“Somebody has some money to spend,” Bobby said.

“Are you picking up on anything?” Scott asked Jean, who shook her head. He pressed the earpiece on his visor. “Forge?”

“Nothing but you guys...wait,” Forge said into their earpieces. “No, I am getting a large energy reading up ahead of you. It looks like it’s the galley.”

“This feel like a trap to anyone else?” James asked.

They came to the door marked ‘Galley’ and Scott signaled for Jean to do something. She closed her eyes and they all heard Scott’s voice in their minds.

“Okay, I’ll go in first. Jean stays out here with Bobby. Everyone else with me. Kurt, be ready to teleport as many people out of here as quickly as you can. Anna, you protect him because they’ll probably go for him first.”

Everyone nodded. Scott put his finger up to his visor as James got ready to kick the door down. With a deep breath, Scott gave a nod and James kicked the door open. They filed inside, Anna holding her breath in anticipation as they entered a large dining hall that was already illuminated for them.

“Empty,” Scott said and he was right. There were three tables that sat scattered around the room, but other than that and a single TV monitor, there was nothing.

“Looks like they picked up and left,” James said.

“Alright,” Scott said. “Let’s search the rest of the ship, just in case, and get outta here. Forge, are you in position to pick us up? Forge?”

The TV monitor flashed on and showed a woman with black hair staring back at them. She wore a pair of circular-rimmed glasses, the light of a wall of televisions reflecting from them.

“Hello, X-Men,” she said. “My name is Revanche. Your teammate will not be able to reach you at this time because I wanted to keep this between us.”

“What do you want?” Scott asked. Kurt and James looked around the perimeter of the room for any explosive devices or any other traps that may have been set for them.

Revanche’s face twisted into a grin. “I wanted to pass along a little information about the professor that I thought you deserved to know. She’s not who she says she is.”

“Why would we trust you about this?” Jean asked, stepping inside. “You’re obviously just trying to get us to fight with one another.”

“Oh, I am,” the woman on the monitor said. “I wouldn’t be telling you this if it didn’t help me. But still, I think you should know Nova is a monster you didn’t even know you knew. Tell me, Jean, why does she make you wear that inhibitor?”

“It’s for protection,” she said. Instinctively, she reached a hand towards it.

“Yours? Your friends?” she replied. “Or hers?”

All eyes were on Jean as they waited for her response, but one never came. Even if she had replied, there was still the ring of truth in the woman’s words. 

“James,” the woman said. “Your brother was an early recruit and, unfortunately, one of the X-Men’s first casualties. She promised to help you get revenge on the American government that had him killed. But let me ask you this: who sent him on that mission in the first place? Was it worth a human life?”

James tensed up at the mention of his brother. His teammates looked at him with sympathy but none went over to comfort him.

“And you, Anna Marie,” Revanche said, focusing her attention on Anna. “I hear she's been helping you control your powers. How has that been going?”

In truth, Anna underwent five sessions in the last week and each one ended with Nova saying they made progress but that she needed more time. How she defined ‘progress’, however, was still a mystery to Anna as she was still unable to touch anyone.

“This is all very compelling,” Scott said, “but there's no evidence to suggest you're telling the truth.”

Revanche’s smile simply grew. “I thought you’d never ask.”

The screen changed to footage inside the United States Capitol Building. The footage was well-known to the mutants as it was the day when they voted on the Mutant Registration Act, a day that was a watershed moment in their culture’s history. Senator William Styker stood at the podium before his colleagues, preaching to them about the dangers of mutations and what kind of world they would be faced with if mutants grew rampant.

“The mutant problem is more than just that,” he said. “It’s an epidemic. In 20 years, mutants have been popping up exponentially. Just in the last year, mutant-power-related accidents overtook gun-related-accidents in the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States. What will happen in the next 20 years? Will homo-sapiens even be around anymore?”

The senator from Iowa nodded in agreement while the senator from New York scowled. In fact, the entire room seemed to be split on the topic with the representative from Washington openly scoffing at the idea as the representative from South Dakota tried to shush her. 

“I’m not advocating for an extermination of mutants, but we need to know who they are and what they are capable of before it leads to that,” he said.

In the end, they voted. When the results showed that only three senators voted against the Act, there was no applause nor booing—just a smirk that stayed on Senator Stryker’s face.

“Did you see it?” Revanche said as the video paused. Everyone was silent, either remembering where they were when the Act was passed, or unable to answer the woman’s question. “Here,” she said. “Take a look in the back, behind Senator Quigly.”

The video restarted and the X-Men collectively looked in the upper right corner, to a sour-faced man representing Maine. A woman stood just behind his right shoulder. She was bald, short, and wore a khaki suit. 

Nova. 

Her lips moved, as if speaking to someone, but she was looking directly at Stryker. And then it clicked for the team, almost in unison. Her mouth moved to the exact speech patterns as Stryker, as if lip-syncing.

The video cut away back to Revanche, who watched their reactions with a slight smirk.

“This Cassandra Nova,” she said, “is not acting in the interests for all of mutantkind. She’s damning them.”

#

Epilogue:

The air in Los Angeles was thick with many different scents that drifted to the hills surrounding the city, but this wasn’t a problem for Logan. The smog, cut with the hard rain that poured over him was obvious, but there were hints of salt from the ocean underneath it as well as a potpourri of rotting wood from the dead trees and vegetation that surrounded him. There was also the scent of tobacco, not just the electronic stuff that everyone sucked out of plastic tubes, but actual dried leaves of tobacco that were burning in paper. Logan knew the smell well enough since he still partook in a cigar whenever he could find them.

The smoker in this case was a mutant with large blue eyes and grey skin sitting atop a radio tower, a rifle lazily resting on the railing. He scanned around him, but visibility was low in the rain. It wouldn’t have mattered, though. He would never have spotted the gunman sitting a mile away, aiming a rifle of her own at the mutant.

As he took one more drag from his cigarette, he felt a sharp pain in his chest and looked down, seeing the smoke pouring from a hole that appeared just where his heart was. Blood ran from it and the mutant fell, letting it mix with the rain.

“You’re up, Wolverine,” Domino said from her perch.

“Nice shooting,” he replied, tearing through the fence. He came up on another mutant, this one resting back in the dark, watching the june bugs and moths swarm and bat at the lights by the door. In one swift motion, Logan covered the mutant’s mouth with one hand as he drove a single claw into his heart from the back. “Got mine down.”

“Do you have a read on any others?” Domino asked. “I can’t pick up on any from my thermal scope.”

Logan took a deep breath, letting the air mix into his nostrils. The smell of other mutants was in the air, but faint. “I think we’re clear for now. I’m going in. You keep an eye out here.”

Before the woman could respond, he opened the door and went inside. The building was just a small shack that was supposed to be nothing more than a maintenance building that doubled as a tool shed for the radio tower that rose above it. Typically there were one or two technicians on site to monitor the tower, but they would usually be inside. And they also usually wouldn’t be armed.

This, combined with the rations and arms inside of the building confirmed to Logan that he was exactly where he needed to be. A light in a room across from the entrance drew Logan. He padded towards it slowly, smelling the air and listening for anyone in a nearby room. There was someone in the room he was approaching that smelled of coffee and he heard the sound of radio static.

As he stepped to the door, Logan peaked through the crack to see a room with various boxes, dials, and microphones that seemed to all be live. A man sat at the radio with his back to the door and was shouting urgently into it.

“We have intruders,” the man said. “I repeat, we have intruders. Send back-up immed—”

The man’s voice was cut short when a claw extended itself across his neck. Before Logan could swipe to the side with it, ending him, the man kicked back, sending himself with the chair into Logan, knocking him back.

“Oh, Logan,” the man said, but his voice began to change even in those three short syllables. And then his appearance did. His skin faded away and was replaced by a woman in blue with red hair. “I was wondering when you would get here.”

“Mystique,” Logan spat.

A new scent entered the room. He turned to look and saw a woman enter the room, blonde and clad in white. He moved to strike at her but not before he felt his muscles tense up. Although every instinct drove him to fight, his body would not cooperate.

“Telepath,” Logan said. His face turned red and his veins began to bulge in his arms from stress.

“Don't sound so disappointed,” the woman said. “I'm helping you in the long run, darling.”

The arrogance spilling from the woman’s voice was enough for rage to come over Logan. As his vision went red, he broke free of the telepathic block for just long enough to slashed at her, but was stopped by her arm. He backed away for a moment, confused at what could possibly block his claws until he saw that the woman’s body had turned clear and shining: diamond.

Emma Frost took the opportunity to change back into her flesh form and sent a psionic blast into Logan’s mind. The man’s eyes rolled back into his head and his knees buckled, his body hitting the floor like a sack of adamantium.

“Is he down?” Mystique asked. She lightly prodded him with her foot.

Emma nodded. “I blasted him with enough power to put him into a coma. Fortunately for him, his healing factors will most likely save him from that fate. And whatever spell Nova has him under seems to keep him shielded from other psychics, to a certain extent.”

“Your arm,” Mystique said, gesturing to Emma’s right forearm, the one she used to block Logan’s claws. Three red slashes had appeared there and blood began to drip from them. “You're lucky he didn't cleave it clean off.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Emma said. “How did you know he would be here, anyways?”

A sinister grin curled onto Mystique’s face. “I got word from a friend who knows these things.”

“The same friend you want my help to get out of jail, perhaps?”

Mystique nodded. “The very one.”

“I’ll be in touch,” she said and looked down to Logan.

“What do you want him for, anyways?” Mystique asked.

This time it was Emma who grinned. “He's going to help me settle a score.”

There was something about the comment that gave Mystique an idea. She stood and looked at Logan then to Emma. “Do you mind if I use him for one more thing? It won't take long and I promise not to harm him.”

Emma frowned in disgust.

“Nothing like that,” Mystique said. “I just need his help to send a message.”

“Fine,” Emma said. “But make it quick. The clock is ticking.”


	5. Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As more revelations are made, the X-Men realize it's time to make some hard choices. But is it their choice to make?

The Xavier Mansion once had a garden. It faced the north, where a brick wall lined with evergreens guarded it from the surrounding alleyways. Inside of it were multitudes of berry bushes from aronia to elderberry, a basketball court in the center, and a large grass field next to it, perfect for the occasional baseball game. In the northeastern corner of the garden stood a pair of weeping willows whose branches dipped into a small koi pond where the fish grew fat from two or three people feeding them a day.

Like with all things, time and smog had suffocated the bushes and turned the trees into twigs. The koi pond was still there but the fish were long gone and the water had turned black. This is where Anna Marie Adler found Jean Grey, sitting at a bench amidst a low, cold fog.

“Jean,” she said. “Was startin’ to think you skipped town.”

Jean looked up to her, slightly startled. “Sorry. I just come here to get out of the house and think.”

“About what?” Anna asked. 

Jean searched for the proper words to convey just what that was but quickly gave up with a shrug. “Everything. Mostly Xavier, though.”

“She’s been on my mind recently too.” Anna took a seat next to her. “We should probably talk about it.”

“What's there to talk about?” Jean stood up from her bench.

“Maybe the fact that all mutants are now forced to register to a government that hates and fears them as a result of her actions,” Anna said.

Jean walked around the koi pond towards the basketball court. She waited as a series of police sirens grew and faded into a whisper before she said, “You really believe Revanche?””

Anna shrugged and followed after her. “Maybe, but it's worth a discussion, at least. The footage she showed us checks out. Ah found four other angles of the video from various news stations in D.C. as well as Silver Springs and all of them showed Nova mouthing the words Stryker said.”

They walked across the basketball court where the concrete grew a darker grey due to the moisture in the air and continued to the rear entrance of the house. Jean walked up the steps and stopped in front of the double doors, the frosted glass golden from the lights inside.

“I'm not convinced,” Jean finally said. “But if you really want to talk about this, we should meet with the rest. If you can get Kurt, I’ll grab Scott and James and we can meet at the Dubliner around nine.”

Pulling the door open, Jean and Anna walked from the patio into the dining room, where many of the mansion’s inhabitants were gathered, with Scott up front. They were gathered around Nova, who was in the early stages of an announcement. Cecelia Reyes stood beside her, looking a little uncomfortable to be in front of everyone.

“Although we will be sorry to see you go,” Nova said, “We hope nothing but the best for you, Dr. Reyes.”

The throng of mutants began to stir and ask questions, but Nova cut them off. Anna and Jean looked to one another as a hand shot up from the back of the crowd.

“Yes, Jubilee?”

The crowd parted slightly as they turned to hear her question.

“With Dr. Reyes leaving, who will be our new...doctor or whatever?” she asked.

Reyes stepped forward. “I have a replacement coming in a week, someone who I trust to leave with you and who will take care of you better than I could have. Otherwise, I will still be available to drop by until then.”

“In addition, we have taken extra precautions in response to our recent loss,” Nova said. Everyone seemed to wince at the vague mention. “Forge has used the Danger Room systems to create a shield from any foreign entities from entering, including mutant-generated portals. In addition, Danger herself will be performing security sweeps throughout the mansion on an hourly basis.”

“And if those fail?” Neal asked.

Nova’s eyes narrowed. “Then you have my express permission to rid us of the invaders with whatever force is necessary.”

#

“You're sure I can’t convince you to stay?” Nova asked when everyone departed.

“Not this time,” Reyes said. 

Nova fell silent at first and Reyes braced for a scolding or a biting comment. But instead she got, “I would offer you a raise, Dr. Reyes, but you've never been in this for the money.” Nova opened the door to the elevator panel and called for it. “So we have you for a week. Where will you be after your week is up?”

“Not far,” Reyes replied. “After that I have a position lined up in Manhattan.”

“I understand,” Nova said as they entered. “I suppose I should take advantage of your help while I still can, then.”

“That’s ominous.”

Nova ignored the comment. “This replacement of yours…”

“The best,” Reyes replied. “Believe me.”

#

The Dubliner wasn't the nicest pub or the most welcoming. It wasn't even the closest bar near the mansion, but it still had one quality that made it better than anything else around: it was the cheapest.

Located in the basement of a nearby building full of retail businesses, The Dubliner was a generational pub on its 4th generation owner. The place was paid for and established, so the exposed brick that began to disintegrate and leave a reddish powder on the cracked faux leather of the booths came off more as ‘rustic’ to its patrons rather than ‘dying’. The musky smell of the underground had always been there, however.

A punk band played in the room opposite the bar, drowning out most conversations that were trying to be had.

“How did you know this was a punk bar?” Kurt shouted. “I thought you hadn’t been here before.”

“Ah haven’t,” Anna replied. She looked down at her cut-up jeans and the old army jacket she wore over her hoodie and saw what he inferred. She fit right in here.

Scott Summers sat at the booth with his arm around Jean, James opposite them, when Anna and Kurt found them.

“I got us a pitcher,” Scott said, gesturing to a pitcher of golden beer.

“Thanks,” Anna said and took a seat.

Scott took the pitcher, pouring everyone a cup as Jean passed them around with her telekinesis. The blatant use of the mutant powers alarmed Anna, but as she looked around, she saw, again, no one seemed to notice.

“Well, mein freunde,” Kurt said when they were settled. “Where do we begin?”

“How about we start with the evidence?” Scott asked. “We saw the videos. Xavier is in them and appears to be manipulating the senate in them to pass the MRA.”

“The key-word here being ‘appears’,” Jean added.

“Theoretically, if she did do this,” Kurt said, “then why? What was her purpose?”

No one had an answer to that question, which seemed to trouble everyone that much more.

“Maybe let's ask her,” Anna said and immediately felt everyone's eyes on her. “It's worth a shot, at least. If she didn't do it then she probably has a reasonable answer. If she did do it…”

“Then she will probably keep it a secret,” James replied.

“We all have our secrets, sugah,” Anna replied. “That's why we should approach with caution.”

“I don't trust her but you're the last one that should be talking about secrets,” James said. His obvious anger had boiled over into the surface for a moment before it broke and he looked down.

“Anna isn't the one on trial, James,” Jean said. “But even so, the professor knew of Anna’s parentage and still let her stay. She can be trusted with our secrets, maybe we should trust her with hers. We just can't do so blindly.”

“So it's agreed,” Scott said, looking over every person sitting at the table. “We confront her with this. Together.”

“What if she controls us with her mind?” Kurt asked.

Anna nodded. “She was able to control at least 20 senators to help get that bill to go through.”

“Twenty?” Kurt asked.

“Yes. Ah did some background checks on the senators that voted on it. Out of the 51 that voted to pass it, 20 of them had been against the MRA before that day.”

Scott leaned forward, retracting his arm from Jean, and shook his head. “There is no possibility that she paid them off?”

“And nothing was ever leaked from it? All twenty kept their mouths shut?” Anna shook her head. “Besides, you should see some of the interviews those senators have given since the vote. Many of them...have had some mental episodes since then.”

A wave of silence came over them and the music seemed to grow louder and louder.

“So,” Kurt said. “What if she tries to control us with her TP?”’

James drank the last of his beer and slapped his cup against the table. “Then we use force,” he said. “And hope we’re faster.”

#

Once when Remy was nine, he got caught pick-pocketing a man who went by the name Bullfrog. Bullfrog was named so because the skin around his neck hung down, drooping over his throat like a frog’s vocal sac, which would puff up whenever he became agitated. That, and he was a large man. 

So, when Remy was caught by this man, Bullfrog proceeded to teach the boy a lesson that involved two black eyes that swelled with heat and pain the likes of which he didn't feel again. 

That was until Remy underwent a procedure that destroyed a signal implanted within his bionic eyes.

The procedure itself was quick and relatively painless. Forge created a device that was able to detect the signal and then made a copy of it, reversing it back to the source, creating a silent feedback that finally caused the source to break down. 

The result, however, left Remy blinded for a couple hours. Forge gave him a pair of welding goggles to wear over his eyes as they repaired themselves, making it so even when Remy was able to see again, he saw little more than a fleck of white light. He tried to sleep it off, but the growing pain he felt made it impossible and began to turn his stomach. Forge had Reyes come and administer something for both, but neither lasted for longer than a few minutes.

So, instead he closed his eyes and thought about anything that would take his mind from the pain. At first he tried remembering; piecing the parts of his memories that now had a fog over them due to his run in with Anna. He thought back to his childhood on the streets of New Orleans and stealing from those like Bullfrog before being found by the Thieves Guild and initiated into their ranks. That all seemed clear enough.

But after that, it was harder. Bella, for example, occupied a space in his mind that he knew was only reserved for special people. He couldn’t remember why or how she got there, however. She was beautiful—there was no doubt about that—and seemed to care for him deeply, but could that be enough? When he awoke from his coma and saw her, he felt something, but it seemed like that ‘something’ had now taken on an acrid odor seeing her disregard for Piotr’s death.

Remy shifted his thinking to something more introspective, then. What had she seen in him? He knew he had a way with women, but Bella wasn’t just any woman. Even if there was always something more to her, she was an assassin, a killer, a taker of lives. He was a thief, a scoundrel, a taker of objects. Did their bond really only go so deep as a shared interest in taking from others?

Just when he was beginning to remember, however, his stomach turned again and he lunged from the bed to the toilet.

#

Everyone was silent when they returned to the mansion from that evening. James went straight to the Danger Room while Kurt teleported to his room. Scott and Jean walked together up the stairs to the dormitories, but both seemed unnaturally cold to one another. Anna found herself following them up, but departed for the library, yearning to read something to distract herself.

The books weren’t anything particularly special, but there was a novelty to holding them, reading the printed words on each page, each a relic in its own right. There were encyclopedias that contained information that had become outdated fifty years ago. There were religious texts for religions that no longer existed and medical journals containing every fact about the human body but nothing about mutants, a species that was relatively new or unknown at the time of their printing.

What Anna found when she entered, however, was not what she expected. On a desk between a pair of bookshelves in the back of the library sat Bobby. Neal stood inches from him. They were both smiling, but those soon faded as soon as they heard Anna enter the room. Neal backed away and Bobby sat forward.

“Sorry,” Anna said, and began to turn away, but Neal stopped her.

“I was just leaving,” he said. As he walked out of the room, Anna prepared to be on the receiving end of a chilly look of annoyance, but he did nothing but stare ahead, ignoring her.

When he was finally gone, Bobby said, “Nice.”

“Ah'm sorry,” Anna repeated. “Ah didn't realize this was a place where people went to hook up.”

“It's not,” Bobby replied. “It's just where I go to hook up. Or at least it would have been.”

Anna crossed her arms. “Why don't you just go to your bedroom? Or his?”

Bobby shook his head, as if agitated and walked over to the door, where he stuck his head out before pulling it closed. He looked at Anna and began to walk a little more softly on the hardwood floor.

“Not everyone here approved of my...romantic tastes,” he said.

“Who doesn't approve?” she asked with a frown.

“The professor.” Bobby said in something barely more than a whisper. “It's been a topic of my training. She thinks I would have a greater control over my powers if I could control my...urges.”

“She's, what, trying to ‘cure’ you?”

Bobby shrugged. “I don't know, Anna. Kind of. But it's more like she's just…” He bit his lip, searching for the words. “Curbing my appetite. Distracting me.”

Anna unfolded her arms and leaned back against one of the bookshelves. Neither person spoke as Anna took in everything she had just learned and Bobby didn't want to push her. Until he did.

“Well?” he asked. “You're torturing me, Anna. What's on your mind?”

It took almost a full minute before she spoke again. “There’s something about your story that just doesn’t surprise me.”

“What?” Bobby asked, defensively.

“Ah don't understand how your sexual orientation plays into your powers. Or why Jean would need some sort of a device that makes her weaker. Or why it's so necessary that she digs into my past just so Ah can touch people. It just doesn’t feel like she’s helping us control our powers as much as she is controlling us.”

Bobby thought for a moment and then shrugged. “I don't know. Maybe we’re not meant to know. Maybe that would interfere with her plans.”

It was as if Bobby generated a cold wind that swept through the room as he breathed those words.

“That's what Ah'm afraid of,” Anna said.

#

Scott tried holding Jean’s hand twice since they had left the Dubliner. The first was when they left, he tried to take it while leading her through the crowd, but she didn't take it. He thought it was just an inability to take it because of the crowded sidewalks.

But when Jean slipped her hand away from him on his second attempt, he knew something was up.

“What's wrong?” Scott asked as they neared the dormitories.

“You really think Xavier is behind the MRA?”

With a sigh, Scott shrugged. “Maybe. All evidence seems to point to it.”

“The ‘evidence’,” Jean scoffed. “A known enemy shows a couple of clips of the professor and you think we should just turn on her? After everything she’s done for us?”

Scott shook his head. “I don't know, Jean. I don't want to resort to violence but if there is a chance that she is hurting people I care about…”

Again, the man tried to grab for Jean’s hand again but, again, she pulled away and folded her arms.

“Fine,” Scott said. “We will talk more about this tomorrow.” 

Jean turned away from him and walked down the corridor to her room. Scott watched, waiting for the woman to turn and say one more thing, something to tell him that what they were going to do the next morning wasn't wrong.

But she didn't. As soon as Scott heard Jean’s door latch shut, he turned to go to his own room, but felt someone watching in his periphery. Deathbird stood before him, clothed in a dark purple gown that looked as if it could have been nightwear or something for a night out.

“Summers,” she said.

“What can I do for you, Cal’syee?”

“The professor would like to see you in the Danger Room.”

Scott frowned. “At this time of the night?”

Deathbird nodded. “She insists.”

“Well,” he said with a shrug. “I guess I better get down there, then.”

#

Jean awoke the next morning, blurry and with a dull headache from a night of tossing and turning. She climbed out of bed and readied herself for the day, throwing her hair into a ponytail and pulling on the first clothes she found. By the time she was finished, she opened the door to get breakfast but was stopped by Anna, her arm raised in a fist as if just about to knock.

“Hi,” Jean said, her heart pounding for a moment. She stepped out and began walking to the kitchen, the smell of coffee leading her.

“Morning,” Anna replied, tailing her. “Listen, have you talked to Scott yet?”

Jean sighed and shook her head. “No. I just got up. What did he do this time?”

Anna frowned either out of confusion or displeasure. “He's calling it off.”

“What?” she asked. They rounded the corner to the staircase and began to descend.

“All of it,” Anna said. “He said we don't need to confront Xavier. He sounded pretty final on it. Even said he had made the decision ‘as team captain’.”

Jean faltered in her steps. “Did he say why?”

Anna shook her head. “Nope. He just muttered something about how we shouldn't get involved in private matters.”

The two of them waited as Betsy and Warren walked past them, bickering over something. The couple didn't even acknowledge Jean and Anna.

When they were out of earshot, Anna said, “So, what do we do?”

Jean rubbed her eyes. She felt a little relief from the news, even though she didn't think she was ‘supposed’ to. “I don't know. I'll talk to him. I'm sure he has a good reason, though.”

“Ah hope so,” Anna said.

#

“Okay, let's say there is a hypothetical mutant who can control vegetation,” James said at the dinner table. “This mutant wouldn't just be able to keep creating fruit and vegetables at a rate that they could feed the world at a fast enough rate.”

“So, we put all of it into a cloning machine or something,” Bobby said. “We take what they can make and put it in one of those machines that Essex Pharma has been working on and boom: more food.”

“This brings up another point, though,” James said. “Food like this isn't just coming from nowhere. It takes energy and matter to make these things, which can't just be created out of thin air…”

Scott watched the tet-a-tet with bemused boredom as he stirred his scrambled eggs around his plate. His attention was split between both things, so he didn't notice at first when Jean sat next to him, holding a large mug of coffee.

“Who's winning?” she asked.

Scott shook his head. “I don't know. But I think I'm losing.”

Jean blew on her coffee before chancing a sip. It was still a little hot, but that just seemed to wake her up more.

“So, why did you call off speaking to Xavier?”

James stopped mid-sentence as he explained the basics of Newton’s laws to Bobby and turned to Scott with a frown. “What do you mean ‘called off’?”

“I guess something you said last night made me change my mind,” he replied to Jean. “I mean, the professor has never steered us wrong in the past.”

“Tell that to John,” James replied.

Bobby, who was still sitting with them, said, “Wait what?”

“Well it sounds like we need more evidence before we can do anything,” Scott said.

“What more do we need?” Anna asked.

“We could start with the politicians who vote on the act,” Jean said. “It would only take a couple days to meet with a handful of them just to get their sides—”

“A couple days?” Anna asked. “We don't have—”

In the heat of the argument, Jubilee ran in with her holopad. “Guys.”

“Nothing is going to happen in the span of two days, Anna,” Scott said.

“Guys, you have to see this.” Jubilee hovered behind James.

“Whatever it is, Jubilee, we don’t have time,” James said.

“Oh, I think you do.” The girl turned the screen to the table and showed Mystique, but she was joined by another. A short, stocky figure bound to an upturned, metal table and gagged, although one only needed to look into the rage in his eyes to know what he wanted to say.

“To those of you just tuning in: This is Wolverine,” Mystique said with a hint of pride. “He was recently sent to my location by a traitorous mutant by the name of Xavier. His intention is to kill me on her orders.”

“The hell?” James said. Everyone crowded around the screen to get a better look.

Mystique brought a hand to her chin, looking more contemplative. “Perhaps ‘traitor’ is too harsh. She does a lot of good for a select handful of mutants, including my very own daughter.” She placed a hand over her heart in an over-the-top display and smiled. “Making her mothers proud.”

Anna felt everyone's attention switch to her, remembering briefly who she was and what she came from.

“But Xavier has a dark side to her. She claims to care about mutants, but why do so many of her students die?” Mystique’s face turned to anger. “I'll tell you why: because they’re only weapons to her; tools. She will gladly use or kill any mutant that gets in her road in her pursuit of power.”

“That's enough,” Scott said, turning away. “This is going to be everywhere. We need to talk to the professor. Now.”

Jubilee lowered the screen as everyone considered what they had just watched. No one protested. As they stood from their chairs, Jubilee looked around the dining room. “Where's Anna?”

#

Anna left the elevator, flying straight out of it and headed for Cerebro. When she got to the doors, she had to stop herself from using her strength to tear them apart, instead letting them open for her. She stepped in, nostrils flared, and found Nova at Cerebro. The woman began to stand when Anna darted towards her and scruffed her by the collar, pulling her up to the wall.

“It seems you want to talk,” Nova said. She kept her cool demeanor, but there was the hint of a bite in her speech.

“Ah’d just like to know why Logan was captured by The Brotherhood in an attempt to kill Mystique.”

“It was going to be quick and painless,” Nova replied.

Anna lowered the professor, taken aback. “So you admit it?”

“Of course,” Nova said. Her eyes grew soft and concerned. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way, but it had to be done, my dear.”

“Mah mothers have done a lot of wrong, but Destiny is doing her time and Mystique will, too, once she’s captured. It seems to me that you’re no better than them if you want to murder them.” Anna gripped Nova’s collar tighter and raised her back up. She thrust one hand around the professor’s throat, ready to stifle any answer she didn’t like. “That's why you brought me here,” she said. “That's why you've been giving me ‘therapy’ for my powers. You just wanted their location so you could send your kill team.”

Anna waited for Nova to say something reasonable and calm. Something that would explain how it was all just a misunderstanding and that it wasn't how it looked at all. But that didn't happen. Instead, Nova grinned.

“Yes,” she said. “I used you to get to the Brotherhood. But you know what? I was also helping you.” 

“How?” Anna growled.

“Haven't you noticed?” she said. “Where are your gloves?”

Anna tore her gaze from Nova and looked at the hand gripping the professor’s throat. It was bare. She could feel Nova’s skin in her grasp, the warmth of her neck and the beat of her pulse. But Nova was safe.

Before she knew it, Anna lowered Nova and stared at her hands.

“H-how?” Anna asked. “How did you do this?”

Nova shrugged. “I didn't actually.”

Anna looked back at her hands and found they were gloves again.

“It's a simple illusion,” Nova said.

The door swished open behind Anna and the lights from the hallway outside were eclipsed by the shadows of five figures. She turned to see Scott, Jean, Bobby, Jubilee, and James standing behind her. All at once, everyone began talking, shouting, questioning.

“Anna?” Jean said. “What are you doing?”

“She used me, Jean,” Anna said. “She used me to get to Mystique.”

Scott put his fingers to his visor. “Professor, are you alright?”

Bobby held up his hands. “Hey, maybe let’s just use our words for now.”

“I'm done with words,” James said. 

While they fought amongst themselves, Nova had slowly made her way back to Cerebro. Anna, sensing something wrong, turned just in time to see her pulling the helmet down over her head.

“To me, my X-Men,” she said.

Everyone fell silent, except for Jubilee, who looked around at the team in disbelief. They all stared vaguely into space. 

“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” the girl asked.

Bobby waved an arm in her direction and ice coiled up around her, binding her arms and legs.

“Hey,” she said, trying to pull the ice apart from her arms. “What are you—”

A sheet of ice appeared over her mouth, interrupting her. Anna watched this in stunned silence, her mind split in trying to figure out what to do now while processing what had just happened. She turned to Nova and rushed towards her. Scott hit her with a blast while James restrained her once she hit the floor.

Although Anna was strong, James still had her in a lock that she could move neither her arms nor head without feeling her nerves begin to pinch and burn. As Jean walked towards Anna, boring into her mind, Anna gave one last push.

“Jean,” she said. “Plea—”

But it wasn't enough. With a mere look from Jean, Anna went limp. James released his hold and stood, leaving Anna on the floor. With the enemy subdued, the X-Men all looked to their master, their eyes still vacant and staring.

#

The sound of footsteps broke Remy away from a nap that didn’t come to him lightly. It was early for dinner, so that meant either interrogation or the X-Men finally decided to send their prisoner to the proper authorities. To his surprise, however, it was neither.

With his eyes now almost healed, he was able to see Nova lead Scott and James, who was carrying the unconscious body of Anna. She turned to the cell, frowning as she made eye contact with Remy.

“Ah, I forgot the cell was in use,” she said. “You’ll be a gentleman, won’t you, and give the bed to the lady? She could use it more than you right now, I’m afraid.”

Scott unlocked the door and opened it. Remy sat up, looking in astonishment as James stood before him with Anna in his arms.

“Don’t try anything,” Scott said, staring right at him, his visor faintly glowing red.

Remy wasn’t usually one to follow the command of a captor, but not wanting to test his luck, he stood up and went to the wall. He watched James walk over to the cot, his eyes focused on his task but still vaguely distant, and place Anna on it. Upon leaving, Scott closed the door and relaxed his arm away from his visor.

As they left, Remy’s eyes fell to Anna and then to the door. 

Then to the lock. 

It was time to leave.


	6. The Coming Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Nova shows her hand, Gambit and Rogue are forced to work together to escape the mansion and find help

Anna dreamt of her mother—her birth mother. It had been so long since Anna had seen her mother that she began to forget her, fearing she would never remember her again. But she saw her there in her dream and it was as if Anna had never left home.

Anna’s mother sat on the couch—an ugly green thing made of what Anna remembered to be corduroy—watching a rerun of The Price is Right while she stitched a pair of Anna’s father’s jeans. The living room was musty, cigarette smoke perforating the walls. Sun poured into the living room through a half-drawn blind, spilling out onto the shag carpet of their trailer.

“Mama?” Anna said.

The woman pulled the thread through a hole in the jeans. “What is it, Anna-Marie?” she asked. When Anna didn’t respond, she did look up, almost annoyed. “Well?”

“Nothin’,” Anna said and stepped back.

The door to the trailer opened and in stepped Anna’s father. He was a big man, with a handlebar mustache that was always a little thicker on one side than the other, but it didn’t seem to bother him. He took his hat off and threw it against the wall with a WHAP.

“Damn truck. Auto shop don't even carry parts for cars that old anymore,” he said to no one but in a way that he wanted everyone to hear. His eyes narrowed further when he saw his wife on the couch, stitching his jeans. “You’re still working on those?”

Anna watched her parents as they squared off, yelling at one another about everything from the housework to their jobs until they eventually began hurling insults, paying no mind that they were doing this in front of their daughter. It wasn’t anything Anna hadn’t seen before, though. In fact, it was everything she had heard her parents say to each other. She remembered.

Then Anna did something in her dream that she never did before she ran away.

“Stop it!”

They did. Neither said another word, leaving the trailer in utter silence. They turned to their daughter, but Anna saw they were not her birth-parents any longer. Her father had transformed into Mystique and her mother Destiny. The furniture of the trailer was still there but they were no longer in the trailer. Instead, they were on a bridge, large and full of stalled cars. It was dark, but in the distance she could see the skyline of a nearby city, the lights littering a horizon full of smog.

“Rogue,” Mystique said. “What’s wrong?”

“Did we startle you, child?” Destiny asked.

“What’s happening?” Anna asked. She realized she was no longer a girl but a young woman.

“This is the plan,” Destiny said, gesturing to the bridge. “All of it.”

The ground beneath Anna’s feet shook and she heard an explosion in the distance followed by screams. A plume of flame arose, followed by another, and another, growing closer and closer.

Anna ran to her parents and took them by the wrists. “Come on,” she said. “We need to go.”

“Didn’t you hear me?” Destiny asked. “This is the plan.”

“You’re going to kill yourselves!”

“Stop,” Mystique said, pulling away from her. “Listen to your mother.”

Another explosion flared up, this time only a few car lengths away from them. The bridge crumbled and sank into the river below them. Anna, now fearing for her own life, ran away.

“Don’t leave us, Rogue!” Mystique called out to her, but Anna wasn’t listening.

She tried to fly, but couldn’t, so she hopped over some cars and pushed others to the side. 

Boom.

This one was close enough to warm Anna’s back, but she did not turn to look at it. The end of the bridge was near, just a few more yards.

BOOM.

She felt her clothes begin to take on the extreme heat and could smell the smoke with each breath she took. She chanced a look behind her and saw there was no more bridge, only smoke and a river. Turning around, she came face-to-face with Nova, nearly running into her.

Nova held a hand out and Anna reached for it as the last of the bridge crumbled beneath her and fell into darkness. Catching Nova’s hand, she was able to avoid falling. But as the professor held Anna, she began to smile and loosen her grip.

Nova’s lips said, “Boom” but her voice was inaudible in the final explosion. Light and heat overtook Anna. And she awoke.

#

The door was a foot thick, made up of steel and looked more like a vault door than anything. Even if Remy’s powers did work here, he wouldn’t want to blow the door in fear of attracting his captors with the noise. Because of a rushed electrical job, Remy saw that the door was wired directly to a control panel just outside of the room. The bad news, however, was that the door was remotely locked with some sort of a key or fob. And he guessed there was probably only one key and who might have it.

Behind him, he sensed Anna stirring on the cot and turned in time to see her waking. She pushed herself up onto her forearms, eyes wide and breath heavy.

“Bad dream?” Remy asked.

Anna sprung up off the bed. “What's happening?” she asked and looked around, remembering. “How long have Ah been out?””

“Few hours,” Remy said, studying the door again. “You feel okay?”

“Fine,” she lied. Memories from the last 24 hours flooded into Anna’s thoughts. She rubbed her eyes and considered her situation: betrayed, locked up, and without her powers. And now locked with a thief who very well might be the only person in the building who wasn’t under Nova’s control. Anna sat back down, feeling a headache begin to rise.

Meanwhile, Remy ran his hands along the door, looking for a place where he could possibly pry the metal away from the steel door. 

“So, why’d they throw you in here, chere?” he asked, his fingers gliding around a line where the metal was welded quickly to cover a lock for when this door was still used as a panic room.

“Ah knew too much,” she replied. “And apparently Ah haven’t been here long enough to earn my dog collar like the rest of the X-Men.”

“That so?” 

He found a small gap. It wasn’t any wider than his pinky nail, but it was something. He went to the table and up-ended it, hoping to find a bar or joint he could unscrew out of it to use, but was dismayed to see it was made up of a single frame that twisted and curved around the table and seat.

“What are you doing?” Anna asked.

“I might be able to pick the lock from here, but I need something to pry open the cover,” he said, going to the toilet.

Anna stood up and flipped the cot. This, too, had a metal frame, but it was made up of square bars screwed into one another. She found a bar with the loosest screw and undid it. “Here,” she said, holding it to Remy. “Will this work?”

Remy looked at it with a smile. The bar even had a lip on the end where the screws were fastened, perfect for prying.

#

After prying the cover off, Remy was able to rewire the lock in a matter of minutes. As the door slid open and filled the room with cool, fresh air, they looked at one another in unison, each expecting the other to take the lead. But neither did.

“I was hoping to lean on you for this part,” Remy said. “I had a rough plan for navigating this place, but you’ve been here longer.”

“Well,” Anna said. She instinctively began to bite her thumbnail. “Xavier is controlling the X-Men. We take her down, the rest should go back to normal. The problem is where we would—”

“Hol’ up,” Remy said. He frowned and shook his head. “We’re trying to get outta here. There’s no way the two of us are taking down Nova by ourselves.”

Anna pinched her lips and balled her hand into a fist. “You’re just going to run?”

Remy nodded. “Yeah. At least until we can formulate some sort of plan.”

“Fine,” Anna said, walking towards the door. “Ah’ll just do it myself, then.”

Before she could completely exit into the hallway, however, Remy placed a hand on her shoulder. Anna stifled a reflex to grab his arm and pull it out of its socket.

“You crazy, chere?” he asked. “You think you can take ‘em all on at once? I want to help you, but we wouldn’t be able to take them all on in addition to the professor.”

“Yeah?” Anna asked. She brushed his hand away. You gonna ask your murderous friends to help us?”

“No,” Remy replied, his face growing dark at the thought. “I know someone else who can help us. Someone who used to be an X-Man.”

Anna’s instincts told her not to trust the man, no matter how much she wanted to. But the thought of meeting one of the X-Men’s past members intrigued Anna enough to reconsider trying to take everyone on by herself. It hadn’t worked so well the last time, after all. After a moment’s thought, she nodded.

“Okay. Let’s get out of here and call on your friend,” she said. “But if you cross me…”

Raising his hands, the man flashed an innocent smile. “I wouldn’t dream of it, chere. Now, lead us outta here.”

Together, they stalked out of the room and down the hall. Remy kept an ear to the ground, but the place was silent, save for their own footsteps. As they approached the elevator, however, Remy stopped Anna and they listened again. The elevator was moving and it seemed to be moving down towards them.

Without even thinking, Anna took Remy’s arm and pulled him through the door directly behind them. Remy steadied the door so it wouldn’t slam just as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. They looked through a small window on the door as Danger stepped out and proceeded down the corridor, heading for their cell.

“Merde,” Remy whispered under his breath. “Our time-frame just got a lot shorter.”

“Well, we may have a better way to get out of here,” Anna said.

Remy turned around, remembering he hadn’t even looked at what room they stumbled into. What he was greeted with, however, was not what he expected.

They stood before a black jet that stretched out over 30 meters long. It was thin enough that one could almost say it was petite, especially when compared to a lot of the fighters that were being flown overseas, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t impressive. The fact that the mansion had an underground hangar big enough to house this jet was a feat in itself.

“You know how to fly that thing?” Remy asked.

“No,” Anna said. “But if we can open the skylight, Ah can still fly us out of here.”

They immediately worked to find a lever or a latch that looked like it opened them, but fearing to attract any attention, they had to work in the dark. Remy searched around the door while Anna flew to the opposite side of the hangar and searched around there. Neither found anything, though, until Remy spied a red metal lever at the base of the jet.

Just then, sirens shrieked and red lights flashed on the ceiling, causing them to jump.

“Looks like we are almost out of time,” Anna said.

“Guess we should get outta here then.” Remy pulled the red lever.

The room grumbled and shook as the ceiling split and opened up to the dismal grey sky above. Remy ran over to Anna, who scooped him up and held him as if he were a child.

“Can't I just piggyback on you?” he asked.

“Listen, Gambit, this is the safest way,” she said as she took off from the ground and flew out of the hangar. “Don't worry, Ah won't tell anyone.”

“I’m Remy, by the way,” he said as they disappeared into the haze above the city.

“Rogue,” she replied. “Or Anna.”

#

They weren't in the air for long. A metahuman flying in the city was bound to attract a lot of attention, namely from the MSE, so they landed in a deserted alley as soon as they were sure they weren't being followed.

“Mon dieu,” Remy said, stretching his legs. “I don't know how you see up there in all of the fog, but I half-expected to crash into someone's living room.”

“Ah thought we might, too, but just figured you'd take the brunt of the damage if we did,” Anna said with a smirk. “So, these friends of yours: how do we find them?”

Remy took a deep breath and pointed to a manhole cover between them.

Anna looked at it and then at Remy. “The sewers? Are you serious?”

In response, he walked over to the cover and pulled a metal rod about a foot long from a satchel stuck to his leg. He pressed a latch and the rod extended into a long, metal bo staff. He jammed the staff in a hole in the cover and pushed it to the side. Once it was off, he shortened the staff and put it back in his satchel.

“I hope you have other shoes back at the mansion,” he said.

“Ah…don't,” Anna replied. She looked down at the boots, which were old but sturdy. She’d had them since before she left Mystique and Destiny.

“I'll buy you new ones, Anna,” Remy replied and descended down the ladder.

#

The sewers beneath the city weren't as unpleasant as Remy had scared Anna into believing. They walked on grates over the sewage that ran beneath them in rushing rivers. When they had to cross any openings in the grates, Anna simply flew over them. Long yellow lights illuminated the walls of the sewers, making it relatively easy to navigate.

“Believe it or not, it’s mostly rain runoff,” Remy said, indicating the water below them.

“That doesn’t make the smell any better.”

Remy, whose shirt was already almost torn to shreds, ripped it the rest of the way and offered it to Anna to breath through.

“Don’t worry, it’s clean,” he said. “I didn’t realize you X-Men offered dry-cleaning to your prisoners.”

“Is this just an excuse for you to take your shirt off?” she asked, tying it over her face. The cloth offered little relief from the smell, but she was grateful nonetheless.

“I don’t need excuses for that, chere,” he replied with a wink. “Besides, I’d have my coat with me right now but I didn’t exactly have time to grab it before we left.”

Nearby they could hear the thunderous roar of rushing water. As they exited a tunnel, they came to a large antechamber where a waterfall of sewage poured into what Anna now understood to be the headwaters for the rest of the channels they had followed. The waterfall echoed in the chamber at a volume where speaking to one another would be virtually impossible, so Remy motioned for her to follow him around a walkway that surrounded the waterfall—Rogue toed around the edges to avoid any of the water—until they came to a wall of jagged rock. Just as she was going to suggest another route, Remy stepped through. For a moment, Anna wondered if phasing was another of Remy’s powers, but when she reached up and tried to feel the wall, her hand went through. Then she felt herself being pulled through.

When she came out the other side, she found herself in another passage, much like the one they were in, but it seemed to be abandoned. The metal grates hadn’t been maintained, so they were more rusted from the cascade of contaminated waters that rolled underneath them. Many of the yellow lights had burnt out in spots and even the ceiling seemed to be crumbling.

Anna, realizing Remy was holding her hand, pulled it away. “Hands to yourself, sugah. Unless you wanna be put in another coma.”

“Sorry, Anna,” he said. “Just offering a helping hand.” Skirting around the more dilapidated parts of the walkway, Remy said, “I’ve—uh—been meaning to talk to you about that, by the way. The coma.”

“Ah figured you’d want to eventually,” Anna replied.

The two of them came to a part of the walkway where it became impassable, so Anna offered a hand to Remy and swung him across.

“Been having a hard time recollectin’ some of my memories,” Remy said. “I don’t s’pose you would be able to help me piece it together…”

“Ah might be able to help,” she said. “Anything in particular you wanna talk about?”

“Maybe let's start with what you've seen...or know.”

She was silent, thinking. Of all the things she knew—and it wasn’t much—what would be helpful to him? What was she not supposed to know?

“That man who found you as a child, with the mustache and the pirate scarf: Was he your dad?”

“Ah, Jean-Luc,” he said with an affectionate smile. “He is in every way but blood, but that don’t matter.”

“What does the phrase, ‘Lache pas la patate’ mean? I hear you say it a lot. Or you used to.”

Remy chuckled. “Literally, it means, ‘Don’t let go of the potato.’ But that’s just a funny way to say, ‘Don’t give up,’” he replied. “Your French ain’t half-bad.”

“Merci,” she replied. “To be honest, though, Ah probably won’t remember it once your powers fade away from me.”

Remy turned around for a moment and winked at her. “Maybe I can give you a refresher sometime, then.”

Anna felt the blood rush to her face and knew Remy could see that, so she decided to change the subject as quickly as she could. “What’s the story with Bella Donna?”

Turning back around, Remy sighed. “It's...complicated. It's one of the things I keep thinkin’ about. Ever since I woke up, I’ve been tryin’ to remember why I loved her.”

“It seems like you two have a history,” she said. “Something about an arranged marriage.”

“Oui,” Remy said. “But there must have been something more, right? We grew up together; pulled cons together before we were teenagers.”

“She left New Orleans with you,” Anna reminded him.

“For me,” he said. “She coulda stayed.”

“Maybe that’s why you feel so committed to her, then.”

The statement hit Remy like a dagger to the gut. He was silent as they came to a series of five tunnels, each wide enough so they could continue walking through them. Scratching his head, he said, “Can never remember which of these is the right one.”

“You’re not meant to,” came a voice from behind them. 

Turning, they saw three figures approach them from the shadows. The one who had spoken was a woman wearing leather and bore an eyepatch. The other two, a hulking man with pasty white skin and a woman with a cat-like appearance, flanked her.

“Hello, Gambit,” she said.

“Callisto,” Remy replied. “Storm in? We were hoping to have a chat.”

#

The reason Remy was never able to remember which tunnel to go through, Callisto explained as she led them, was because it always changed. They began using Shi’ar teleportation technology to simulate a tunnel when it was nothing more than a miniature wormhole. They just placed it in different spots frequently to keep anyone they wanted out.

“Why would you want to keep me out, mes ami?” Remy asked.

“If I started listing every reason now, we would get to the city before I could finish,” Callisto replied. She led them down a ladder into a narrow shaft that was much darker than the others they had been through.

Anna, who had been silent for most of their walk, finally said, “City?”

“That's right,” Caliban said. He had also been silent during the walk, but when he spoke, his voice was soft, almost bird-like, which clashed with his outer appearance. “Storm has provided for the Morlocks, so we have prospered and grown, bringing in more and more unfortunates like us.”

“Mutant and human,” Feral growled.

“Sounds like not everyone is sold on the idea,” Remy said.

Callisto grumbled. “That's putting it lightly.”

The tunnel began to widen and the lights multiplied. It was so dark before that it was difficult to see, but it was now obvious they were in a section deep underneath the city where construction had at one time taken place to expand the tunnels. Some of the equipment, including floodlights and a handful of carts remained where they had been abandoned or dumped. 

“How many are in this city?” Anna asked.

“Around ten thousand at last census,” Callisto said.

The idea of this underground city having a government, let alone a census, raised more questions. “How do you house that many people?”

“See for yourself.” Callisto motioned up ahead where a large, industrial-sized elevator painted in yellow and black awaited them.

One-by-one they stepped onto the platform. Caliban flipped a switch and the elevator rumbled to life as it descended. As the ground rose above them, the air cooled and smelled fresher than the sewers, but still had the scent of mildew on it. Eventually, the tunnel widened and they all stood before a vast chasm hundreds of yards high and wide. When their eyes adjusted, they were able to see the buildings constructed from rock and salvaged construction parts with narrow streets that ran between them. The city was lit by the yellow and green lights that ran along the hallways of the sewers.

“I wondered why ‘Ro would be okay with living underground with that phobia of hers,” Remy said, admiring the view. “You’ve really expanded since the last time I was here.” 

“We’ve had a lot of help thanks to Julio,” Callisto said. 

“You built all of this?” Anna asked.

“The humans who were here before us gave us a head-start,” Caliban said. “Then they abandoned it.”

A gathering of Morlocks awaited those on the platform as they began to reach the base of the ground. Leading the throng was a woman clad in white, who stood with them on the ground although she had the ability of flight. Remy made eye-contact with the woman and grinned but she remained stone-faced in front of her followers. When the platform finally reached the ground, the woman stepped forward.

“Remy LeBeau,” she said.

“Bonjour, Stormy,” he said with a toothy grin.

Anna watched as a dark cloud came over Ororo and then parted as a smile broke through for a moment. “You know I hate it when you call me that.” She turned her attention to Anna. “I see you've brought company.”

“Anna,” he said. “Ororo. Ororo, Anna.”

“Oh I recognize her. It seems the X-Men have acquired more members,” the woman said. “Perhaps we should speak.”

“Yes,” Anna said. “But first, Ah need a change of clothes.”

#

The Morlocks took Anna and Remy’s clothes so they could wash themselves in one of the bathhouses in the community. The bathhouses were a series of natural pools surrounded by rock walls. The water for them came from natural springs that warmed themselves due to volcanic activity below.

Anna was hesitant to disrobe and bathe in such an open space, but since no one was in sight, she did anyway. After she scrubbed the past 24 hours from herself, she dried off and dressed herself in her freshly washed clothes, although little could be done for her boots. Afterwards, Callisto led her out of the bathhouse to a large tower made up of a series of storage containers that rose above the rest of the city. For the most part, the woman was silent, almost avoiding any questions or points of conversation Anna threw at her. As they approached the tower, however, Callisto became more animated.

“Listen,” she said. The houses they passed were clothed in the dark blue of the cavern’s shadow, with yellow and green light spilling out of the windows. “How long have you been running with the thief?”

“Remy?” Anna asked. “Less than a day. Why?”

Callisto spat. “Do you trust him?”

“Ah s’pose,” she replied. “He got me outta that cell and led me to you guys.”

“Trust me, Rogue, he helps if he thinks he can get something out of it later.”

“What does he get out of this?” Anna asked.

Callisto smirked. “Maybe it's you.”

Anna glared at the woman. “Why don't you trust him?”

Callisto turned around for a moment, her eyes wide with disbelief. “Have you met the man? He might watch your back for you, but it’s only because he’s trying to figure out which pocket you keep your wallet.”

Before she could even formulate a response, they got to the tower in the center and walked through the doors. Inside, Remy stood before a table, pulling on a new shirt over a torso wrapped in fresh bandages. Ororo stood at the other end, listening to the end of the man’s story.

“I had heard about Piotr, but I was hoping my source was mistaken,” the woman said. “So, he’s really gone?”

Remy replied with a grim nod.

“That is a great loss,” she said. “Remy, why did you ally yourself with these Marauders?”

With a shrug, Remy said, “Been askin’ myself the same question, Stormy, but when it comes down to it, I was either greedy or desperate. Probably both.” He made a fist and placed it down onto the table, as if trying to keep himself from slamming it. “I’m really tryin’ to make things right, though. I can promise you dat.”

It was then that they noticed Anna and Callisto standing before them. Ororo’s expression softened and she stood to greet her guests.

“Anna,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

“Better.”

“Good.” Ororo gestured to the seats around the table. “Please, sit and speak with us.”

“Okay…” She took a chair near Remy.

“I caught her up on everything I could,” Remy said. “I just hoped you would be able to fill in a couple gaps from before they brought you to the cell.”

Anna paused. The memories flooded her mind at a rate that she wasn't sure where to begin. After a moment’s deliberation, she started from the beginning.

“Ah was in a bad place not too long ago,” she said. “Mystique and Destiny took me in and things were great for a while, but Ah could tell they were headin’ down a path that Ah didn’t wanna go down, so Ah didn’t. Around that time, Xavier got into contact with me and offered me a place to live and gain some control over my powers.”

The woman went on to explain her first days at the Xavier Mansion, her sessions with Xavier, and her initial encounter with Remy. She told them how the team reacted to the death of Colossus and her first mission with the X-Men to take down the Marauders, only to leave with the information given to them by Revanche. Finally, she explained the team’s hesitation to confront Xavier and their downfall when they ultimately did.

When Anna finished her tale, she became aware of how silent the room was. After a short time to digest the information, Ororo spoke first.

“So, it has all happened again,” she said.

“What do you mean by that, chere?” Remy asked.

“Xavier is a monster, perhaps more so than those she sees as her enemies. My story is similar to yours, Anna: a young woman trying to understand her powers who is sought out by a wealthy benefactor and mutant who says she can help the young woman, only to use her in the end.” Ororo stood and began to pace around the table. “The X-Men have gone through many changes in its roster. I wasn’t the first to join nor was I the first to leave.”

“What happened to the others?” Anna said.

“Disappeared, in the case of Namor and Beast. Or dead, in the case of John Proudstar. I had hoped to return some day to save my friends, but the Morlocks became my priority. There are many—not just Xavier—who would see them exterminated like some vermin.”

“And Ah’m guessing those still on the team are too mind-washed to remember,” Anna said.

“I think that’s why you were able to escape,” Ororo said. “You hadn’t undergone enough mental conditioning yet.”

Something about this sparked an idea in Anna, causing her to stand so quickly she nearly tipped her chair over. “It’s not just that,” she said. “They also have some sort of inhibitors. Jean has one and Ah’m willin’ to bet that the rest do, too.”

“Okay,” Remy said. “So taking out Xavier is only half the battle. We need to disable those somehow, too.”

“We may know someone,” Ororo said.

“So, you’ll help us?” Anna asked.

Ororo walked over to the woman and placed a hand on her shoulder. Remy braced himself for the woman’s inevitable negative reaction to being touched, but she was too enveloped with Ororo’s response, that she said nothing.

“Anna,” she began, “it is long past time to finally put an end to Xavier and her twisted school. You have our help.”

Callisto, who had been silently sitting from the back of the room, said, “Hold on there, Storm. You barely made it out of that hellhole in the first place. We’re not the ones to be storming the castle and overthrowing the evil queen.”

“Au contraire,” Remy said. “We’re the only ones who can.”

“Zip it, Cajun, I wasn’t talking to you.”

“We can discuss dis outside if you prefer,” Remy said, standing up. Callisto did the same.

“Enough,” Ororo said. A gust of wind blew from behind her and pushed them both back to their seats. “Callisto, I am not asking you to come. You owe these people nothing. You owe me nothing. But you will show our guests respect.” She turned to the thief. “Remy, this is my domain. I would expect that you treat those under my protection with the same courtesy and respect that you show me.”

Remy apologized but Callisto looked even angrier. “I’m not just worried about me.”

Ororo softened. “I will be safe, beloved.”

“I know you will,” Callisto said, folding her arms. “Because you won’t leave my sight.”

The two women shared a look but neither replied because they both knew they would be unable to talk the other out of going.

“So, we need to get in, disable the inhibitors, take out Xavier, and get out,” Anna said, moving on.

“I can get us in,” Remy said, “but I have a feeling they’ll be guarding the door.”

“Plus, we still don’t know how to disable the inhibitors,” Callisto added. “We could give them serious brain damage, for all I know.”

At that, Ororo smiled. “It’s fortunate you came when you did. We just so happen to have a couple others that might be able to help.”

#

“I didn't expect to see you here,” Remy said. 

He stood in a room that contained a radio, a pair of computers, and a large tube tv that sat in the corner, playing a news station. Blink stood before him, Sage behind her on one of the computers. There was another woman with green hair that sat off in the corner.

“We didn't agree to killing anyone, either,” Blink said. “So we left and came here.”

“How did you find this place?” Anna asked.

Ororo stood between them at the table holding the radio. “Clarice was with us before Revanche found her.”

Remy sighed. “I ain't in any position to pass judgment right now. And honestly, I'm glad you're here. We could use your help.”

“That's what we heard,” Sage said, not looking up from the computer. “And don’t worry about the cybernetic eyes. I already checked to make sure we don’t have them.”

Anna swept her hair back. “Blink, your role in this is pretty straight-forward: teleport us into the mansion. But first, we will need Gambit to break in and disable the shield.” She turned to Sage. “Yours is a little more complicated.”

“You need me to help take the inhibitors off of your friends without killing them,” the woman said. She ceased typing on the keyboard to look at Anna through her deep red sunglasses. “I can help with disabling them, but I don't know exactly how to take the inhibitors off.”

“Who would?” Remy asked.

“Probably just Xavier,” Anna said.

Ororo jumped in. “That is where Polaris comes in.”

The woman with the green hair perked up.

“You good with technology?” Anna asked.

With the flick of her wrist, Polaris raised the table the TV sat upon, causing it to flip upside down with the TV still ‘sitting’ on it and then set them both back down where they were before. “I control metal.”

“Ah used to know someone who did the same,” Anna replied.

“So, that just leaves Xavier,” Remy replied. “How do we get near her without gettin’ brain-zapped?”

“I can help with that,” Sage said. The tapping of the keyboard grew louder and faster. “There are two people who would be resistant to her telepathy: Jean and Danger. Jean will probably be close to Xavier, seeing as she’s her pet now. Danger will be patrolling, but that’s not a problem as...of...now.”

She quit typing and rotated the screen, which displayed different images. One showed the lobby of the mansion while another showed the hallways to the men's and women's dormitories. There was even one for each sub-level, although it must have been from the elevator because it only showed the one shot.

“Luckily for us, Xavier beefed up the surveillance.”

“Alright,” Anna said. “This might just work.”

#

Sage monitored the security feed while the others performed tasks of their own. Blink and Polaris stayed with Sage while Storm went to find one more person for the mission. Remy and Anna went with Callisto to a small armory in the second level of the tower to get some gear. The armory was more like a tool shed, but instead of rakes and shovels, there were guns and explosive devices that hung precariously on hooks.

“Pick your poison,” Callisto said. She went for a pair of daggers, which she slipped into her boots and an SMG that she slung over her shoulder.

“You got cards?” Remy asked.

“Cards?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “Playing cards. I can even do UNO cards in a pinch, but they’re not as stylish.”

Callisto closed her eye and shook her head. “We don’t—this is a place where we keep weapons, not games, LeBeau.”

“I just need those,” he said. “Otherwise, I have my bo staff.”

“Okay…” Callisto said and began to walk back towards the stairs. “I guess I’ll go see if I can dig up some playing cards somewhere. Rogue, do you need anything while I’m looking? Maybe some Monopoly pieces or a Jenga set?”

“Ah’m okay,” she replied. “I’ll just take a look in here.”

As Callisto left she muttered more obscenities directed at Remy, leaving just the two of them in silence. Anna stepped into the armory and looked around, taking in the scent of metal and gunpowder. She reached for a pistol and felt the cold metal of its barrel.

“Do you even need a weapon?” Remy asked, stepping in with her. “I figured you were set.”

“No,” Anna said. “It’s weird, but Ah kinda feel back at home here. Mystique even used to carry a gun like this around.”

“You miss her,” he replied. 

Anna began to shrug but it turned into a nod. “A bit. She and Destiny really helped me figure out who Ah am.” She turned away from him, distracting herself with a sword on the wall. “Ah don’t know. It’s dumb.”

“Dat’s just natural, chere,” Remy replied. “You miss your parents. I don’t know your whole story, but I know what it’s like to be raised by people who ain’t exactly straight-laced. No matter how bad someone you love can be, you still always remember the good in ‘em.”

Without turning, Anna nodded. In this moment of silent reflection, everything she had been trying to forget or work past came back to her and she knew if she turned to meet the man’s gaze, she might begin to weep.

Spying something in the back, Remy slid past Anna and grabbed something from the shelf. “What have we here?”

“What’d you find?” she asked. “Ah thought all you needed were playing cards.”

“So did I until I saw this,” Remy said. He held up a round metallic device that was no larger than his palm. “This is Shi’ar. I wonder how they got a hold of it.”

Anna approached to get a better look and Remy handed it to her. She inspected the device, flipping it over and running her fingers along the grooves. It was heavier than she had anticipated. “What’s it do?”

Remy reached over and pointed to a black circle in the middle. “Hold your finger over that for a few seconds.” 

She did. “Now what?”

“Well, I’ve only ever heard of this, so I don’t know if it’ll work, but…” He pressed on opposite sides around the edge of the disk. At that moment, another figure appeared in the room with them, making it a lot more crowded. “Voila!”

“Holy shit,” Anna said, looking at what seemed to be a clone of herself. The clone stood there, looking at them with a blank expression. She breathed and blinked and seemed to be real. 

Remy took the projection by the hand and lifted it to plant a kiss on it. “It creates a hard-light projection of whoever imprints on it,” he explained. Taking the disc back, he pressed around the rim again and the projection disappeared. “‘Course, she’s got nothin’ on the original.”

Anna rolled her eyes but was glad that the room was dark enough that he wouldn’t be able to see her blush. “Yeah, whatever you say, Cajun. Ah think it’s creepy.”

Remy shrugged. “Might come in handy.”

#

Remy and Anna returned back downstairs with Callisto, who found two decks of cards for Remy (although one was missing a Jack of Spades and a Joker). Storm, Blink, and Sage awaited them in the comms room along with a man who introduced himself as Julio Rictor, the man responsible for building much of the Morlock city.

“I am leaving Julio in charge of the city in our absence,” Ororo said. She turned to the man. “In the event that things take a turn for the worse, you are charged with defending our people.”

Rictor nodded. “I won’t let our city fall, Storm.”

“Alright,” Anna said. “Sounds like we’re as ready as we’ll ever be. Sage, how’re we lookin’?”

The woman, who had been silent, was now frowning. “There’s commotion. A lot of it.”

“Do they know we’re coming?” Callisto asked.

“Someone turn the TV on,” Sage said. Polaris clicked one on that was on the table she sat at.

At first, they all thought it was a coincidence that they saw the Xavier Mansion on the TV. But that was because they didn’t truly understand the gravity of the situation. It wouldn’t have mattered what channel they were on because it would have shown the same shot of the mansion, surrounded by the same cars emblazoned with MSE. The only difference would be the variances of headlines or subtitles. The headline on the channel they were watching at the moment read, “MSE Standoff at Xavier Mansion” with the subtitle, “MSE Agents in Deadly Standoff with Mutant Registration-Dodgers at Secret Mutant School.”

“Looks like Mystique got her message out to everyone,” Remy said.

“Xavier will sacrifice everyone before she lets them take her,” Anna said. “We need to hurry.”


	7. Graduation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the conclusion of this arc, Gambit, Rogue, and Storm's team infiltrate the Xavier mansion to rip the X-Men from the psychic clutches of Cassandra Nova.

The Summers brothers were inseparable from an early age. Whether it was sharing a parachute while floating over Anchorage or sharing a bunk in an orphanage in Omaha, neither was ever far from the other. They both knew this and always shared in a silent agreement to look over one another. So, when the boys first met Cassandra Nova Xavier, it was the first time they were ever split.

At first, the split was merely a difference in opinion. Scott seemed to believe in the woman’s intent to help all mutants control and understand their powers. Alex, however, had his reservations. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was something about the woman that seemed disingenuous. But how could he argue with his big brother?

In the end, it didn’t matter. Nova didn’t seem to care for Alex or his suspicions, and so she took Scott by himself. As Alex now stood behind a line of MSE cars, with many of his colleagues ready to fire into the mansion that now held his brother, he wished he could have stopped the woman. 

Alex cursed himself for not insisting on driving that day. If he would have, he would have been able to take the call to investigate the commotion at the mansion, but Bishop drove that day and let someone else take the call. Alex knew his partner was just trying to keep him from getting involved in the situation, but he still believed that things may have diffused if he had gotten there first.

The Enforcer who did make it there first, an officer by the name of Cassidy, didn’t make it long before he was attacked by someone inside.

“Alex.”

It was Lucas Bishop, his partner. He wore a black vest over his uniform and carried a scattergun.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

“I know,” Alex replied. He was standing past the police barrier, watching the mansion. “But I need to be here, Bishop.”

Bishop was about to say something, but it deflated into a sigh. He shook his head and said, “I know it’s going to take a lot to make you leave this area, but I at least need you to step back and let me handle this. You’re in no shape to be on the front line of this, Alex.”

Biting his tongue to protest, Alex stepped away from the cars, towards the back of the barricade where MSE and NYPD officers were gathered. When he was far enough away, Bishop turned his attention back to the front of the mansion. There had been no movement since their initial contact and they had received no further orders on if they should try to make contact again. Half of the officers behind him wanted to storm inside and shoot first and maybe never ask questions, while the other half didn’t want to do anything. The fact that Nova had kept the place a secret for so long seemed to rattle them. What else was she capable of?

As for Bishop, he just wanted to find a solution where everyone would walk away from this unharmed. 

There would be no such solution.

#

“How did I get stuck with you?” Callisto asked as they crept along the bowels of the sewer. The walls were made of cobblestone instead of concrete, a gradual change as they moved from into the old part of the city.

“I needed someone to guide me,” Remy replied. “And you seem to be right at home swimming through this filth, mon ami.”

“You're lucky you're Ororo’s friend,” she replied. “Otherwise I'd have a knife with your name on it.”

They crawled along the edge of another tunnel where the air grew warmer. An odor floated upon it that was unlike anything Callisto had smelled here in her years of residence. 

“What are we looking for, exactly?” she asked.

“Well, the way I see it, the mansion has to be powered by something big, probably Shi’ar technology. Dat means whatever is powering it has to have a pretty large output of exhaust.

“Seein’ as how there's nothing above ground like a chimney dat would point is the way to where that shi’ar tech is, I'm gonna guess it's down here somewhere. We find the way, we find the generator. We find the generator, we destroy it and Blink can ‘port everybody inside.”

It seemed so easy, but it was so hard. If Remy was wrong, there would be no way for the rest of the team to make it inside.

As they continued, Callisto said, “Why are you doing this, Gambit? I don't know you that well, but I know you don't stick with people unless there's something you can get out of them.”

Remy’s eyes flared and he clenched his jaw. “Whether you want to believe it or not, I do have a sense of honor. And right now that sense is tellin’ me to help these people, because they are good people. They're heroes. And they don't deserve to be slaves.”

Callisto said nothing. Her gaze stayed on Remy, even after he was finished talking, before she looked down the tunnel with the haze. Remy looked around at the walls and then at the ceiling above him but saw no opening, let alone exhaust or sewage other than what was at their feet.   
“You sure this is it?”

“Of course I’m sure.” Callisto grumbled something else to herself and scanned their surroundings. “Maybe they’re using teleportation tech to get rid of it. Like, from the Shi’ar or something.”

“Maybe, but dat seems like a lot to go through just to get rid of some excess steam or somethin’, no?” 

Remy checked his watch. The rest of the team needed to be in the mansion by now. Each member of the team was given an earpiece so they could keep in communication, but there was no signal this far below ground. As he considered his options, Remy began to pace up and down the corridor while Callisto watched, getting visibly more agitated.

They could walk until they found an exit from the sewers, but that could take a while and then they would have to figure out how to get into the mansion from the outside. Remy looked up to the cobblestone and considered how much it would take for him to charge the stones to blast a hole beneath the mansion, but that was basically suicide. Or they could keep looking.

Then, Remy noticed something. “Hey, c’mere,” he said and Callisto walked over, still grumbling.

“What?” she asked.

“Notice the air?” Remy said. Callisto stared at him, ready to hurl an insult, when she noticed the warm draft that seemed to be coming from the wall before them.

“That could be from anything,” she said, although her voice wasn’t as hard and convincing as she meant it to be.

Remy reached forward to the wall, meaning to give it a tap. If it was built around another opening, it would be a simple matter of a small explosion—maybe just a shove—to open it up. Instead, though, his hand went right through. Waving his hand from side to side, he found the illusion covered another opening, another corridor. Without another word, Remy walked through and found himself at a ramp with steaming water rushing down below him. He turned to call back for Callisto to follow only to find her walking through.

“Let’s go,” she said. “We’re on a timer.”

The tunnel was narrow and seemed to have been made within the last couple years. It led them upwards for about 100 feet, warm, rank air rushing up from the floor every step of the way, before they came to a door. The door was narrow and metal, the same design as the ones inside the mansion. With his tools on-hand, Remy made even shorter work of this door and they were soon inside, facing the power source for all of the mansion.

“It’s a lot smaller than I imagined,” Callisto said. “But I’m sure you’re used to hearing that.”

Remy rolled his eyes and walked around the device, inspecting. She wasn’t wrong about it being small. In his mind, Remy saw a large metal boiler-type thing with windows showing colorful electricity like something out of Sci-Fi film. This, however, was basically just a metal box, about the same shape and size as a bathtub, with smoother edges and a few Shi’ar markings. A tube carrying water fed it from the floor and a thick, black cable ran from it to a generator that fed the rest of the mansion.

“Well, let’s blow this thing and go help everyone upstairs,” Callisto said.

Remy scoffed. “I don’t know much about alien power generators, but I gotta imagine that blowing this thing would be like detonating an atom bomb underground.”

“Fine,” Callisto said. She pulled a knife from her hip and walked over to the generator, where she severed the cable. 

The room went black as the lights lost power and were replaced with red emergency lights. The hum of the generator, which was little more than white noise to Remy and Callisto, was gone and the room became silent. Above, an explosion echoed through the halls.

Callisto sheathed her knife. “Well, let’s go save some superheroes.”

#

Even when the X-Men were under Nova’s control, she left a long enough leash that they each still behaved like themselves on a surface level without being able to peer through the haze of Nova’s powers. So, when Blink opened a portal to the mission room, Anna wasn't surprised to find Betsy there. She sat behind one of the desks, going over a file labeled ‘Mandarin’. When she sensed a presence behind her, the files fell to the floor, spilling out around her feet and she spun, her fist glowing pink with psychic energy.

They were too fast for her, though. Storm summoned a flash of lightning to temporarily blind Betsy while Anna flew in and tackled her to the floor, pinning her.

“You're up, sugah,” she said to the green-haired woman floating behind them.

Polaris dropped to Betsy’s level. As she lowered her arm, she said, “I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt.”

In an instant, Betsy went from fighting her captors to screaming in pain as the metal inhibitor slowly became extracted from her head. And before she knew it, it was over. Betsy clutched her head in agony, as Anna and the others circled cautiously around her.

“Betsy,” Ororo said. “Are you okay?”

For a moment, Betsy looked as though she wouldn't respond but after a moment to gather herself, her eyes focused on Ororo in recognition.

“Storm,” she said. “What's happening?”

Ororo embraced the woman briefly before pulling back and looking at her friend a little closer. There was a small wound in her head where the inhibitor once was, but it didn’t seem serious. Still, she reached for the medical pack she brought with her.

“Xavier has taken control of every X-Man’s mind and is making you her soldiers,” Ororo said, peeling a bandage from its wrapper and applying it to Betsy’s head. “The MSE are outside, ready to take the mansion by force, so we haven’t much time.”

Betsy motioned to the door. “So we should go for Nova, then. Cut the head off the snake, the body dies.”

“There's no predicting what will happen to the rest of the X-Men if we took her down,” Anna said. “What if the ‘body’ in this case is the X-Men?”

“Alright, that makes sense,” Betsy nodded. Her eyes widened and she grabbed Ororo by the arm. “Jubilee. They’re going to make her undergo the procedure for the mind-control devices.”

“Sage,” Ororo said, pressing into a communicator in her ear. “Where is Jubilee?”

#

Bishop’s fists had been clenched for so long, he began to lose feeling in his palms where his fingers pressed into them. They had been this way for only a minute or two as he listened to his superior officers debate how to handle the ‘Xavier problem’, as they had so affectionately referred to it. Bishop was forced to remain silent in the make-shift situation room as the captain of the NYPD, a chubby human man by the name of Thompson, argued in favor of the use of lethal force, using the MSE since it was ‘their’ problem in the first place. Howard Stark, a much older man who also served as the National Security Advisor disagreed.

“This would be the prime opportunity to see how the new Stark Sentinels hold up against real, hostile mutants,” the man said. His mustache, though sculpted to perfection, was now white.

“Mr. Stark,” Thompson replied. Though he wasn't much younger than Stark, the words came out in a tone of monotonous exhaustion. “We have to think about what we’re dealing with. If this thing escalates, it could be Ground Zero for another World War. I don't trust the Sentinels, even with Trask's software helping them make decisions, let alone negotiating with terrorists.”

The last word caught Bishop by surprise and he winced. This caught Stark’s attention. He held a calm look on his face but his eyes had a fire in them.

“Thoughts, Officer Bishop?” he asked.

Clearing his throat, Bishop said, “Mr. Stark. Captain Thompson. With all due respect, I think we are approaching this the wrong way.”

“And how would you approach it?” Stark asked, raising his voice.

“I can try talking to them,” he said. “A couple of them might be able to help explain what is going on and de-escalate the situation. There are good people in that building.”

“Do you know these mutants, officer?” Thompson asked.

Up until that moment, Bishop was steadfast in his denial of association with the X-Men, not even considering the consequences of it being revealed that he helped them stay under wraps. But now, if he truly believed he could talk to them and calm everyone down before anyone got hurt, he couldn't play dumb anymore.

“Yes,” he said. Bishop didn't need to see the men’s reactions—he could almost hear the air being sucked out of the tent. “I was investigating them on my own time. I gained their trust. If you let me talk to them, I might be able to end this now.”

Stark and Thompson looked at one another, each slightly shocked. Finally, it was Thompson who spoke first.

“Fine, Bishop. Talk to them,” Thompson said. “But I will be having words with your superior officer in regards to your extra-curricular activities.”

“I can't believe this,” replied Stark, his face cold with disgust. “This will go nowhere and we’re just wasting time. The mutants in that place are nothing but common rats. You can't reason with rats to get them to leave your pantry. You have to exterminate them.”

“I am sorry your son was killed by a mutant, Mr. Stark,” Bishop said, keeping his calm demeanor. “I really am. And I know your business partner was killed by a mutant as well. But if I can go up there, I might be able to stop any more deaths, human or mutant.”

Without waiting to hear Stark’s reaction, Bishop left the tent. It was almost evening now, with the overcast sky slowly changing from the usual ashen grey to purple from the growing number of streetlights illuminating. More news anchors showed up with their bulky vans, crowding the police line as a formation of police kept them from breaking it. He could feel their gaze shift to him as he left the tent and walked towards the steps of the mansion. As he bound up towards the door, Bishop tried to convince himself that it wasn’t too late to turn away, but, in reality, it was too late the second he and Alex heard the report of the disturbance.

Bishop rang the doorbell and gave the door itself a few knocks for good measure and stepped back. A pair of NYPD cars hovered overhead, monitoring the situation. Bishop ignored them. After a few moments, the door finally opened, revealing Scott Summers.

“Lucas,” he said with a genial smile. “What can I do for you?”

“What’s going on in there, Scott?” he asked.

“Nothing much,” he replied. “Just about to start a game of bridge with Kitty and James.”

Bishop stared at the man, waiting for something more, but there was nothing. Between Scott’s plastic smile and his apparent inability to notice the army of law enforcers surrounding the mansion, Bishop’s fears of mind-control were all but confirmed.

“Could I join in on the game?” Bishop asked.

Scott frowned. “I’m…” 

His head twitched.

“I’m afraid the table’s full,” he said, beginning to shut the door. “Have a nice day, Lucas.”

“Maybe I can just watch, then. Or get in on the next game.” Bishop put his hand up to stop the door. Scott looked at his hand and then to Bishop, who put on his own smile. “What do you say?”

“Please leave,” Scott said.

“Scotty?!”

Cursing under his breath, Bishop turned around to see Alex weaving through the cars to get past the barricade. Everyone’s attention focused on him as he made his way across the street and ran up the steps.

“Alex, you need to—”

“Scott,” Alex said, catching his breath. “Are you okay?”

“I am fine,” he replied. “Please leave, Alex. Our table is full.”

Alex stepped forward, trying to make an attempt to enter the house but Scott remained where he stood. “What are you talking about? What is going on here?” Realization melted Alex’s confusion. “This is Xavier’s doing. She’s got you under her spell doesn’t she?”

“I am perfectly safe with Professor Xavier,” Scott replied. 

There was movement inside and a figure approached from the stairs. It was Neal who came into view, wearing a similar expression of relaxed content. Bishop felt his eyes on him like cold steel. They had already overstayed their welcome and were quickly entering trespassing territory in her view.

“Alex, Lucas,” he said. “I’m afraid I need you to leave.”

“Hold on a second, Neal,” Alex said. When Bishop grabbed him by the forearm, he said, “Get offa me. I want to know what’s going on with my little br-”

Before the man could finish the sentence, Neal raised his hands and pushed them back with a plasma blast so strong they landed back near the barricade. Both men landed on their backs, the air forced from their lungs. A collective gasp came from the onlookers behind them.

Metal screeched against metal and the MSE, the NYPD, and all the bystanders watched as metal shields slid over every door and window. Bishop picked himself back up and ran over to Alex, who was dazed but otherwise unharmed. He looked back to the tent where Thompson looked back at him with a grim look on his face. Stark was beside him, making a call on a comm-link. Bishop couldn’t hear the man over the chaos of everything that happened around him but he could tell what was being said.

“Send the Sentinels.”

#

Bobby and Deathbird restrained Jubilee in the electronics lab while Forge fastened a new power inhibitor to a device that looked like an electric drill. The two were easily able to overpower Jubilee, but the girl wriggled around on the metal bench, making it difficult for Deathbird to shave the part of her head where the inhibitor would be implanted.

“Hey, that’s going to take a while to grow back. Bobby, what are you guys doing?” she said, looking up at him. She tried to keep her humorous facade up, but that was more for her own comfort at this point. “What’s Forge going to do to me?”

Bobby didn’t seem to notice she was even speaking. He just faced Deathbird as she powered the clippers off. Forge finished his calibrations and made his way over to the table with the drill device.

“Bobby, please,” she pleaded one last time. “Forge? I don’t suppose you’re listening to reason either?”

Forge leaned over Jubilee, blotting out the fluorescent light above her, and placed the inhibitor on her head. The metal was cold and ridged from being a rushed job, making it so it grated against her head. Jubilee squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the pain to begin.

But it didn’t.

Instead, a portal opened, illuminating the darkened room in purple. Out stepped Betsy, followed by Ororo and the rest of the rescue team. Betsy tackled Forge to the floor but Bobby and Deathbird didn’t go as easily. Their instincts kicked in and Bobby immediately put up a wall of ice, blocking Ororo from hurling a gust of wind at him while the Shi’ar warrior charged at Anna and Polaris, her talons drawn back and ready to slash at them.

“This is going to hurt, Forge,” Betsy said. She produced a pink psy-dagger and jammed it into the man’s head, aiming for the inhibitor. 

Forge screamed in pain and went limp, losing consciousness for a moment before coming to again. “Betsy? Where am I?”

“I’ll explain in a moment,” she said and then jumped up to aid Ororo, who was losing ground to Bobby.

The weather goddess’s powers were unwieldy in such close proximity, making it difficult for her to strike at Bobby without hurting him or anyone else around. Because of this, she relied on her agility, honed from hours of sparring with Callisto, to dodge his ice attacks. As she saw Betsy begin to make her way to Bobby, Ororo dove to the left, making it so Bobby had to turn his back to the purple-haired psychic. Ororo took a blast of ice to the abdomen, pinning her to the wall, but it was in vain. Blink had opened a portal behind Bobby so Betsy could step through. She had the man on the floor in a matter seconds, her psychic dagger in his head already.

Meanwhile, Anna and Polaris struggled to dodge Deathbird’s swipes. One even caught Polaris’s side, just below her ribs. The cuts weren’t deep, but they stung and caught the woman off-balance, causing her to drop to the floor. Deathbird used the momentum to strike again, but this time for Polaris’s throat. Anna flew into the woman before she could make contact at the last second, shoving her against the door.

“Ah don’t think so,” she said.

Just then, the lights went out. Deathbird screamed a Shi’ar curse at her and beat her wings against the door, using the sudden darkness as a distraction to push Anna away. Momentarily free from the woman’s grip, Deathbird hit the console to open the door and flew away.

Anna began to fly after her when Ororo stopped her. “It’s best we don’t split up, for now,” she said. “She’s not the biggest threat at the moment.”

Anna nodded in agreement and helped Jubilee undo her straps and then examined her head. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Jubilee said and then felt the patch in her hair that had been shaved. “Except for my new ‘do.”

“It’ll grow back,” Anna replied.

As Ororo discussed their next steps with Betsy and Anna, the rest of the team checked on Bobby. He seemed to be unharmed, except for a headache.

“This went about as smooth as it could, but we’re still running out of time,” Anna said. “At least Gambit and Callisto got the power turned off.”

“Gambit?” Betsy asked. She looked less surprised when she found out that Nova had been controlling her. “He’s helping?”

Anna shrugged. “Ah guess he’s not so bad, after all.”

“I'm glad we’re all making friends,” Sage said through the comm-link. “But just so you know, you've got a squadron of sentinels en route to the mansion.”

The mansion rumbled as something exploded above them. Even this far below ground, the ground trembled and the red lights flickered. 

“Scratch that,” Sage said. “They're there.”

#

The door from the generator room led to a darkened hatch with a ladder. The ladder, Remy and Callisto soon found, rose up through a floor panel that led them into a large room made up of silver panels.

“Well, where to now?” Callisto asked.

Remy motioned to the door on the far side of the room. “Looks like our exit,”

The two jogged towards the door, anxious to meet up with the rest of the team, but as they approached it, Danger appeared before them, floating mid-air with metallic spikes growing from her knuckles. She was flanked by Kurt and James. With the power down, both men still looked to be brainwashed, meaning Xavier’s control was stronger than anticipated.

“You should not be in here,” Danger said.

“We’re just lookin’ for a way out, chere,” Remy said. He flashed her the cheesiest smile he could. “Could you kindly point us to the door?”

Without a word, Danger and James rushed towards them while Kurt teleported away.

“Finally, a fight,” Callisto said. She drew her knives and met James in the middle of the room, who wielded his own. If Remy hadn’t been in the middle of defending himself from Danger, he would have seen how the two of them flawlessly fought and dodged one another, engaged in their dance of blades. Callisto drove her knife forward, aiming for James’s chest, who dipped back and rolled to the side, swiping at the woman’s ribs with his own blade.

Callisto, anticipating the attack, however, brought her second blade down and parried the knife. As James picked himself off of the floor, Callisto dove for the man, her teeth gritted in feral anger. Because of his mind-control, however, James let no emotions overtake him and easily side-stepped her.

Meanwhile, Remy fended Danger’s attacks off with his bo staff, blocking each strike with ease. She was merely stalling, however, trying to gauge the thief’s abilities before locking in on some repetition or weakness to exploit. He tended to block with the middle of his staff and then immediately swing one side to strike her in the head. On the third time, she quickly struck at him with a hand that she had transformed into a sharp blade. Remy, recognizing what was happening, pulled the staff back before it could be cut in two.

Kurt appeared then, holding a pair of rapiers. He teleported between the two pairs, striking where he could, trying to keep them off-balance. The strategy worked. As James pushed Callisto back, Kurt appeared behind her and drove his sword for her stomach. Callisto side-stepped, but not in time. The rapier blade caught her just beneath the ribs, leaving a sizable gash in her side. He then teleported back to Remy and Danger as the thief kicked her back, gaining ground. But before he could use the momentum to deliver a harder blow with his staff, Kurt appeared above him and brought him to the ground. Remy fell to the floor, his breath being knocked out of him, and barely moved his head out of the way before a sword came down to the floor, nicking his left cheek.

“You guys need some help in there?” Sage asked over the comm, witnessing this happen on her end.

“Umm,” Remy said, dodging another blade. “Maybe.”

“On it,” Blink said on her end.

“Pick me up on your way,” Sage added. “I have an idea.”

After a matter of moments, a portal opened and both women stepped through. Blink spied Kurt, who noted her ability with a wicked grin. He teleported away and reappeared behind her, meaning to thrust his sword into her back. Anticipating this, Blink threw one of her pink, teleportation javelins behind her and another to her side, so the blade appeared horizontally in front of her. She took Kurt by the arm and pulled the blade through. Before Kurt could teleport away, Sage had cornered him, placing her hands on his temples.

The hatred in his eyes disappeared and left the elven-eared man to check his surroundings in a confused state.

“Welcome back,” Blink said, handing his sword to him. 

“Danke,” he said, staring at the blade.

Together, they were able to overpower James, who did not take the news of his mind-control as lightly. He threw his knives to the ground in anger, their clatter echoing in the great room.

“Where is Nova?” he growled.

“We’ll get to her,” Sage said. “Right now, we need to take her down.”

Danger disengaged from Remy and pulled back to assess her situation. Without the power of the full room at her disposal, she knew that taking them all on at once would end in defeat. In an instant, she made her way for the exit leading to the hallway, but was cut off by Kurt and Remy. She went for her remaining exit but was again cut off, this time by Blink and Callisto. She pulled away from them, meaning to go for the hatch that Remy and Callisto had initially come through when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her torso and held tight. As James restrained the robot, Sage came face to face with her then and placed one hand on her head. The woman stared at Danger through a pair of scarlet sunglasses.

“Let’s go,” James said, his grasp on Danger slipping. “I can’t do this forever!”

Sage didn’t need forever, just a few more seconds, as she transmitted her data from the glasses, through her cybernetic arm. Danger’s eyes then went dark and all 250 pounds of her Shi’ar metal collapsed to the floor.

“Well, that takes care of that,” Sage said. She bent down to examine the woman, still getting readouts through her glasses. 

“We should get going,” Remy said, holding a finger to his earpiece. “Sounds like trouble upstairs.”

“Go on,” Sage said, examining the robot. When no one made any movement, her head snapped in the direction and her voice became firmer. “Go. I'll catch up.”

#

The Sentinels were the product of an ambitious collaboration between Bolivar Trask and Howard Stark. Stark, after losing his son in a freak accident, began experimenting with armored suits that could be put on at a moment’s notice. The suits’ power source was an Arc Reactor in its chest, making it so they were able to fight on for days without needing to power down. Trask, meanwhile, created a series of robots that could detect and apprehend mutants. Together, they created the Sentinel, a robotic exoskeleton that could be worn by law enforcement when dealing with mutant matters, or sent in by themselves.

Some of the world’s most powerful mutants were getting a first-hand demonstration just how powerful and clever these robots were. Five of the Sentinels entered through the front door into the dining room, where Scott, Kitty, Warren, and Neal, who had recently and unexpectedly awoken from a dream-like trance, awaited them. The four of them fought well at first, with Neal’s plasma taking out one of them right away. But the others registered this and changed their attack from using brute force to ice. With one of the Sentinels in his sights, Scott fired a concussive beam, but it merely bounced off of its armor and shot up to the chandelier, causing an explosion of crystal shards. The glass rained down on Warren as he tried to fly to his aid, but the close quarters of the mansion made it so he couldn’t make it far without being grabbed or shot at by a Sentinel.

With their focus on Warren, Kitty phased through an unaware Sentinel and drove her hand through its chest, meaning to tear out its Arc Reactor. She was unable to, however, as the Sentinel sent a current of electricity through itself, causing her to withdraw in pain. Unfortunately, she did not register that there was another group of the Sentinels that had entered through the second level and were now behind her. Before she could say anything else, cold, metallic hands took her forearms and restrained her. Kitty phased through them, however, and took a step back into the Sentinel.

As the Sentinel wasn’t being piloted, Kitty was able to step into its exoskeleton with ease. The difficult part, however, was she wasn’t sure if she could pilot it herself. In the helmet, a pair of eye-level scanners ran a light over her eyes.

“User detected,” the Sentinel said. “Speak command.”

“Uh...manual override,” she said, just making something up on the spot.

“Manual override initiated,” said the Sentinel.

“Well, that’s a design flaw,” Kitty said, but didn’t argue with it. She went to work immediately, going over to her teammates, who were quickly becoming overwhelmed with Sentinels. She went for a pair that were using concentrated carbon dioxide to extinguish Neal’s powers. Raising her hand, she hit them both with a pair of ion blasts.

Even with them down, however, two more took their place, followed by another pair coming for her. The mansion began to fill with Sentinels, each covering an exit and closing in on the group. Many had begun to realize they had a wolf in the herd and began to blast Kitty with their own ion gauntlets. The suit took the bulk of the damage, but the impact still hurt. As the helmet’s screen flashed “CRITICAL ERROR” to Kitty, she realized it was time to ditch her suit.

Phasing out, she went for the nearest Sentinel and took the same steps to override it. But the surrounding Sentinels had grown wise to the plan and began to fire on her immediately. Some even began to pile onto her, restraining her arms.

Just as she was about to retreat from not only the suit, but the room itself, she felt one of the Sentinels holding her let go. When she turned to see why, she saw the robot no longer had its head. In its place, sparks shot out from its open neck.

“Rogue?” Kitty barely managed to say.

“That you in there, Kitty?” Anna asked, dropping the head to the floor.

“Yes,” she said. “It’s me, Kitty.”

“Good thing I didn’t take your head off, too then,” she said.

Kitty watched in astonishment as a slew of mutants filed through a portal, with Kurt teleporting his own share. Ororo rose to the sky and summoned a dark cloud that covered the ceiling before three bolts of lightning shot down and struck through three Sentinels, going right through them like a hot knife through butter. Callisto tossed a spare dagger to James and together they went to work, slashing through some Sentinels of their own. Polaris, hovering right next to Storm, began to pick up the Sentinels and shove them towards the doors, barricading them so no others could come in. Kurt teleported sporadically, slashing and stabbing at a robot but teleporting away before they could get to him. Blink created a series of portals, aiming them so the Sentinel’s ion blasts would hit one another before creating one more for Jubilee to aim her pyrotechnics at any still standing. Betsy drove a katana into the chest of one sentinel and pushed it into another, making a stack of metallic corpses. Forge went to work firing a sidearm at one Sentinel, and then re-wiring it to attack the others. Anna carried Remy up into the air and then dropped him onto a Sentinel that was amidst a thicket of others, which he charged and then leaped back up to Anna just as the Sentinel exploded.

As Kitty began to join in the fray, a pair of men stepped through the back entrance. Both wore the uniforms of the MSE, but instead of attacking the mutants, began to fire at the Sentinels, Alex with his own concussive blasts and Bishop with his scattergun. Alex made his way over to Scott, who turned to him for a moment with a beaming smile.

“Scotty?” Alex said, blasting another robot. “You okay?”

“Much better now,” Scott replied. “You?”

“Never felt better,” Alex said.

Betsy, meanwhile, found herself next to Bishop, who shot at one sentinel with his gun and then used his mutant powers to hit another with the energy stored in his body.

“Glad you could join us,” Betsy said, pulling her blade from an Arc Reactor. “I don’t suppose you can tell your friends to call these things off of us.”

“I don’t think I have that kind of pull anymore,” Bishop said.

The attackers were beginning to thin, their metallic bodies littering the floor, when one of the barricades that Polaris had been holding gave out and a stream of Sentinels began to pour in. Polaris was able to create a magnetic barrier that kept them at bay, but that left the other openings vulnerable. Even with the aid of the extra superpowers, the tide of robots slowly began to rise up above the mutants. 

It was then that Blink created a new portal, but instead of entering it, Sage exited, with Danger in tow. As they were the nearest, Bishop and Betsy helped to clear a path for the two of them as they fought their way to the center of the dining room, where the once grand table laid in splinters, mixed with the glass. Once they were directly in the center of the room, Sage placed her cybernetic hand onto the nape of Danger’s neck, feeding one last command to her. Danger rose among the throng of mutants fighting robots, her eyes shining with brilliant light.

For a split second, just before she followed through with her final command, everyone stopped and turned to Danger, either awestruck or blinded.

And then she extended her arms and the glow enveloped everyone.

An EMP blasted from her, rippling through the room in a static-filled bubble, through the house, over the onlookers outside until it had covered an entire city block. And then there was darkness.

#

Silence was a rare thing in the city, where the chatter of home appliances and the hum of cars were as constant as the recycled oxygen that was filtered into the air. At 1407 Graymalkin, however, the machines were silenced, leaving only the collective groan of almost a dozen mutants. Anna picked herself up first and then offered a hand to Kitty, who was nearest to her. One-by-one, each mutant rose to their feet while the Sentinels laid at theirs, sprawled out and broken.

“Where is Danger?” Bishop asked.

Sage merely looked down at the floor, where the bodies of the sentinels created a circle around the spot where the robot once stood. Now, there was nothing but a shell of her former self: a head, an arm, and what looked like a piece of her stomach.

“She did right by us,” Sage said and held up a green piece of metal. Anyone close enough saw that it was actually a microchip. “I’ll do right by her later.”

Scott, however, was not listening. He pushed through the group and headed for the staircase. Alex rushed to his side and caught him by the shoulder.

“Where are you going?” he asked his brother.

“We need to find Jean,” Scott said. “And the professor.”

“We will,” Alex said. “Just relax for a second so we can regroup.”

“We need to end this,” Scott insisted.

Before Alex could reply, the ground shook beneath them and the sky opened up above them as the mansion began to collapse. Pieces of the ceiling cracked and fell down onto the mutants, but not before Ororo sent a torrent through the room, sweeping them away before any pieces of the sharp wood and plaster could land on anyone. With the ceiling as well as the roof gone from the mansion, they could see the sky, where the sun was beginning to break through the clouds, a sight most had not seen in their lifetimes thus far.

The floor splintered and broke open. Jean ascended into the room, radiant with pink energy, with Nova in tow, wearing Cerebro’s helmet which connected to Jean’s inhibitor through a cable.

As they reached the spot where the ceiling once hung, they stopped and looked down. Neither opened their mouths, but both of their voices were soon heard in-tandem as the light above grew brighter. At the very first breath of the very first syllable, each and everyone within their sight could soon hear.

“X-Men,” they said. With each word, everyone in the surrounding area fell to their knees as the sheer power they witnessed became more than they could handle. “Witness our ascension.”

With that, both women’s heads fell back and their bodies rose towards the light, which the men and women below clutching their heads in pain would see was not the sun at all but something alien. The light began to take the shape of a V.

“J-Jean,” Scott said, sweat dripping from the tip of his nose. “Please...y-you’re better than her.”

For a moment, Jean’s expression relaxed and she turned towards a fraction of an inch towards the man’s voice.

“Xavier can help me,” Jean said without saying. “I’ll be safe. You’ll be safe.”

“None of us have ever been safe with Xavier,” Scott said. He sat back up on his knees. “Remember John? And Hank? God.” He paused, remembering. “We lost Hank.”

Again, Jean stopped to consider but Xavier’s eyebrows narrowed in frustration. She extended a hand to Scott, who stumbled back again, clutching his throat as he gasped for breath. With what little strength he could muster, he raised a hand to his visor and fired off a blast. Nova floated to the right and raised a mangled piece of rebar that once supported the very foundation of the mansion. With the flick of her wrist, she flung it at Scott, who, finally too weak to move, braced himself for the death blow.

But it never came.

The second the bar would have impaled Scott, Alex shoved his brother to the side and accepted the blow.

“Alex!”

“Your aim is off, boy,” Nova said, relishing the situation. But it soon dawned on her that she was now using her words to speak again instead of her telepathy. The cable connecting her mind to Jeans now hung down limp, severed from Scott’s optic blast. “No!”

As Nova fell to the ground, the rest of the mutants began to circle around her. Jean, finally comprehending the scene around her, looked to Scott and Alex and then to Nova as the light slowly faded from her eyes. Now in total control of her complete powerset, Jean floated down to the professor, sprawled onto the floor.

“This is what you wanted all this time.” Jean said, her face filled with rage. “To use us—to use me—for some small modicum of power. But why expose all mutants? Why make everyone register for the MRA?”

Nova picked herself up and smiled that same confident smile she always wore when she knew she was still in control. “The power I want is not small, girl. It is a great, astronomical power that seeks out beings that can wield it. I may not be as powerful of a mutant as many on this planet, but I have the means to find one that would attract this power I seek. Having every mutant on a database for me to exploit just made things easier.”

“So, it’s coming for me?” Jean asked.

“It will come for you in due time.”

Light filled the room as the V grew closer and closer. Its birdlike shape became more and more defined in the clouds until finally cut through. Everyone below, from the X-Men to the MSE to the bystanders, stared up at the alien warship that now hovered over them.

“The Shi’ar?” Jean asked. “They’re here for you.”

Anna walked over to Jean, her eyes up to the sky. “Want me to send them away?”

“No,” Jean said. “Allow me.”

With that, she placed her index and middle fingers on both of her temples and rose into the air again. Whatever she said when she broadcast her thoughts to the ship were only for those aboard the ship, but it worked. After descending back to the ground, the engines on the V grew bright and loud as the Shi’ar vessel disappeared back into the clouds.

Everyone’s attention then turned to Scott, who held his brother’s head in his lap, knowing he only had moments left before he would bleed out. Alex’s eyes were locked with Scott’s as he lightly shook in his lap, blood being spattered out of his mouth with each strained and broken breath. Neither man said anything to the other. Scott attempted to summon help at first, screaming orders to anyone who could remove the jagged piece of metal that had gone through Alex’s chest, but no one could do anything. And Scott wasn’t blind to that fact.

So, he watched his brother as he took one more breath, raised a hand to Scott’s face, and suddenly dropped it before he could make contact. Alex’s eyes turned to glass, locked on his brother, the last image he would ever see.

“Alex!” Scott finally choked out. “No!”

His shout echoed through the air and suddenly sobered everyone to their current surroundings. James walked to the front door, which now stood crooked and peered outside. The police were beginning to scramble, creating an opening for a team of SWAT troopers who marched forth in a two-by-seven man line. Then another opening was made where another team of SWAT Troopers poured out and another.

“We need to go,” James said. “Now.”

“What do we do with Xavier?” Kitty asked.

“On it,” Forge said. Jean and Betsy used their telepathy to restrain Xavier’s as he knelt beside her with his inhibitor device. James tied her hands behind her back as Forge said, “At least we don’t need to shave your head.” And then he gave to her what she had given to so many of her own students.

Ororo said, “Blink, make a portal back to the city. We can escape there for now.”

Blink did as the woman said and created a disc of shimmering pink that showed the comm room where Rictor awaited them. One-by-one, the team began to filter into the portal, with Ororo ushering everyone in. Jean, noticing that Scott was making no attempt to move, ran over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Scott, but we need to go,” she said to him.

Scott shook his head. “Not without Alex. I’m not leaving him. Not again.”

Remy, who was about to enter the portal after Anna, saw what was happening and ran over to them, crouching at Alex’s feet. “Let’s go, homme. I’ll grab his legs.”

It took a second for Scott to realize what Remy was doing. Together they were able to hoist Alex up and through the portal. Blink shut it just in time for the SWAT Troopers to arrive to find nothing but a mansion in ruins and its master bound in the living room, abandoned there by her students.

# Epilogue

“It has been six days since the standoff at the Xavier Mansion,” the reporter said, “with all but one of the Mutant Extremists known as the ‘X-Men’ detained. Almost a dozen more are not accounted for at this time despite the joint efforts of the MSE and NYPD. Captain Thompson is expected to make a statement later tod—” 

The reporter froze until the picture cut out, leaving Jubilee to stare at herself in a blank screen with Bobby looking over her shoulder on the couch behind her. Her hair had been cut on the left side of her head where Forge had buzzed it, but she left the right side of her hair longer.

“C’mon,” Jubilee said, shaking the holopad in frustration. She sat on the floor, her back to a couch that had to have been 20 years old. “The crappy internet in this cave is gonna make me lose my mind.”

“Maybe let's talk to Forge,” Bobby said. “Or Sage. They might know how to boost the signal.”

“Or you could read,” Neal said. He was laying in Bobby’s lap, halfway through a copy of a fantasy novel that was older than the couch.

“Neal, you are beautiful and smart,” Bobby said, running his hand through Neal’s hair. “But I will have Forge give you back your inhibitor if you suggest anything like that again.”

Outside of this dwelling, Jean walked with Ororo down one of the many streets in the ramshackle town. Jean sported a bandage on her head and carried bags under her eyes, but she smiled all the same to the mutants they passed.

“This really is amazing, Ororo,” Jean said. “You're giving these people a life that mutants above ground will not know for some time after last week.”

“Do you believe the Sentinel program will continue after the destruction they caused?” Ororo asked.

Jean’s smile dimmed. “I think the average human has been scared of us for some time. Having a secret militant group of mutants under their noses was just a powder keg ready to blow. Xavier was the match.”

With a grim nod, Ororo said, “Are you sure I can't convince you to stay with us?”

Jean shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, but we’re probably some of the most wanted mutants in the world and we can't put you at risk. Besides, there are a lot of old friends we need to track down. Plus, I think Scott needs the distraction right now.”

“Well, at least you're rid of that parasite Xavier.” Ororo nodded toward a set of stairs that led into the city’s center. “Now, let me buy you a drink. The wine here is surprisingly good.”

The two women came to a stop in the town center where the market was full of mutants haggling and hawking their wares. The smell of roasted meats and fresh produce filled the air. Tents made up of construction tarps created a miniature city inside the square, where people sold everything from pre-Contact books to vintage clothing. 

It was out of one of these clothing tents that Remy walked, carrying a box. He held it tight with one arm while he lit up a cigarette with another. After he made his way through the bustling shoppers and past a series of food carts on the edge of the square, each tempting him to stop with the smell and sounds of grilled things, Remy walked up to a dwelling near the edge of town, where the rock wall loomed over it. It was a simple dwelling, but housed four women inside. Remy was only there for one, though.

Dispensing his cigarette in an empty bowl on the window, he knocked. The door opened as Remy made one final attempt to smooth out his hair, but the woman at the door was not the one he came to see.

“Oh, hey, Gambit,” Kitty said. Her words were shallow and lacking of any warmth.

“I told you, chere, ‘Remy’ suits me fine,” he replied with a warm smile.

“Are you here for Rogue?” she asked.

Remy nodded. “If she's around.”

“Ah am,” Anna said from inside. 

Kitty backed away as she got to the door. Anna thanked Kitty and stepped outside, closing the door behind her.

“Ah see you’ve replaced your coat.”

Remy tugged at the trenchcoat’s lapel and shrugged. “Yeah, found this at the market.” Handing her the box, he said, “Found something for you too.”

Anna took it, eyeing it with an upraised brow. She pulled the lid off the box to reveal a pair of boots, black leather with a zipper that ran up the side to a buckle at the top. 

“Don't take this the wrong way, sugar,” she said, “but you paid money for these right?”

“Sure I did. I happen to be turning over a new leaf, you know,” Remy said with a defensive frown. “Now you gonna try ‘em on or not?”

Immediately, she went to pull off her sneakers, one at a time. She began to lose her balance but Remt caught her arm.

Once Anna pulled the boots on, Remy said, “I hope they fit. Had to guess your size.”

“They're perfect,” Anna said with a smile, even though they were a little big. She would just stuff the insides with newspaper. “Thank you.”

Remy winked at her and she put her sneakers back on.  
“Got time for a walk?” he asked.

“‘Course.”

Remy led Anna through a barren street, still hugging the edge of town. There were a couple houses being built, but no one seemed to live on the block yet. Even for the city, it was quiet.

“So, you planning on sticking with the X-Men and living your life as an outlaw?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “They trust me and Ah trust them. It's nice to know someone's got your back, no matter what.”

“I got yours,” Remy said. “You know that, right?”

“Ah never doubt that,” she said. “This your way of asking if you can join the team? Ah mean, Ah could probably put in a good word, but you'd just have to ask...”

Remy laughed. “No, chere. I don't think any of us are ready for that.”

“You said you're turnin’ over a new leaf,” Anna said. “Bein’ a superhero ain't a bad way to do it.”

“I was thinking something a little more low-key,” he said. 

It was then that Anna realized that Remy had a destination in mind when he asked her for a walk. They were approaching the lift.

“Bishop offered me a job,” Remy said. “He’s got a lead on Revanche and the Marauders and he asked my help.” He shrugged and kicked a rock down the street. “I figure it’s a good first step to makin’ things right.”

The revelation hit Anna like a sucker punch. She fought the urge to tell him it was a bad idea and that he could do more good with the X-Men. In reality, she had no clue if they would even take him.

“So this is goodbye?” Anna asked.

“For now,” Remy said. They were now at the lift, stopped just in front of the platform.

Even though she wanted to turn to the man and kiss him or hug him, she could only reach over and take his hand. They held hands and looked at the platform with the kind of ire that not many inanimate objects usually garner.

“Mierde,” Remy said, breaking from her hand. “I also got you one more thing.”

He reached into his coat and pulled out a triangular device and handed it to Anna. It was light in her hand. She was afraid she might crush it, so she just let it sit in her hand as she examined it.

“It's communicator,” he said. “It's one-way, so I can't talk to you, but I'll be able to hear you. We probably won't be able to talk for a while, now that we’re all wanted by the government. But if you ever call me, I'll be there.”

Anna placed it carefully into the breast pocket of her jacket.

“But how will you call me when you need help?” she asked.

“I'll send a carrier pigeon,” he said with a wink. “Or I'll just have to make sure I don't get into too much trouble.”

“Ah think the carrier pigeon is more likely,” Anna said, shooting him a smirk.

Remy nodded and took one more deep breath. As he exhaled, he stepped onto the platform. “Well, I better be going. I was supposed to meet up with Bishop and the rest of the team an hour ago.”

“Wouldn't want to make them wait,” Anna said. “Bonjour, Remy LeBeau.”

Remy pressed on the power button of the lift. “Bonjour, Anna.”

“Lache pas la patate,” she said.

Remy’s face lit up with a smile. “I won’t if you won’t, chere.”

The lift jerked to life and the platform raised. The two mutants looked to one another for as long as they could. When the lift finally disappeared up the cavern and neither Remy nor Anna could see one another, the smiles faded and they both went their separate ways. 

There was work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've made it to the end of this arc, thanks for reading! Full disclosure: This final chapter was tough. I almost broke it up into 2 chapters and maybe I should have, but I kind of just wanted to get as many loose ends tied up at once. I think it's probably not as strong of a finish as it could have been, but at a certain point, I just had to walk away. Regardless, I hope you liked it!
> 
> Anyways, I've already got 2 more arcs in the works and they are going to be much smaller. This whole arc was kind of a Prequel arc, to be honest. I had ideas for X-Men characters set in a Cyberpunk setting but felt like I needed to write this arc first to get a good baseline for everything going forward. So, while I enjoyed writing this arc, I'm even more excited for the next couple.
> 
> It will probably be a couple months before the next arc is ready to be published, so unless I write any one-shots (which is probably unlikely due to time constraints), I'll see you then!


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